Red Waters
by xXDemonic AngelXx
Summary: Reid's having blackouts that can't be figured out, and it's causing a lot of problems for the guys. Reid's love interest looks to be the start of it, but what will happen when the rest of the guys are dragged into it as well and they turn on Reid?
1. The Average Life

All right...quick introduction before you continue onto the story. This deals not so much with my other abuse stories, but the pain is definitely there later on. I swear to god this isn't anything Mary Sue based, because I am nothing like the girl you are about to meet. The idea of her just happened to fall into my lap...

Blah, blah, blah, I don't own the characters to this story, except for Jason and Melanie. Lots of drinking in this story, sex related materials, things like that. and sorry but the story is almost finished so if you come into this expecting me to incorporate your ideas...sorry, but im probably not gonna take any. Now, enjoy the story.

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**Chapter 1**

Reid limped down the path towards his truck, wiping blood from his mouth. He was in no mood to deal with anyone at the moment, and if Aaron or Caleb showed up later on...there _was_ gonna be hell to pay. He reached his truck and resisted to punch the door. The truck itself meant more to him than anyone he knew. _Except Tyler. I like him._ Reid climbed in and started the truck, letting his power overflow him and lead him back to the dorms. He relaxed, trying not to fade out and crash. It was going to be an hour long drive from where he had decided to go for the night, and he hoped he could make it back.

He heard his phone ring and looked at the name, halfway tempted to throw it out the window. Finally he picked it up, hearing, "Reid? Reid? Are you there? Please, say something."

_Stupid girl. _"What do you want Melanie?"

"I'm really, really sorry about tonight. That wasn't supposed to happen. Jason is a dick and he got his buds together cus they're all jealous and none of that was supposed to happen and—"

"It doesn't matter. Whatever. Shit happens."

"Reid, please don't be mad at me. Come back down here and I'll make you feel better. I saw part of what they did to you and I don't think you're capable of driving back."

"I'm fine. It was nothing. I have school in the morning anyway."

"Are you sure? I can clean you up, and, and..."

"And what? I know you purposely told him about you and me, and he's only gonna show up again. You're just a tease, Melanie."

"What? I am not! How can you say that?"

"Not sure, but I just did."

"Fine Reid, be all pissy."

Reid heard a click and smiled. _Got her off my back now...bitch. _Reid suppressed what happened, knowing he'd have to explain it to Tyler, and then Caleb and Pogue. He didn't see the need to reminisce more than what was necessary.

The drive back was longer than he anticipated, and as he pulled into the dorm parking lot, his energy was gone. Halfway tempted to sleep in his truck, he got out and stumbled up to the dorms, opened the door, and walked up the stairs to his room, his legs feeling ready to collapse under him. By the time he reached his room, he could feel every spot that was sore, bruised, and cut. He thought he didn't have anything that could be called fractured or broken, but if he did he would go back for revenge.

Once the key was in the lock, he pushed the door open and walked over to his bed, shedding off his jacket, shoes, socks, hat, gloves, and shirt on the way. He got to his closet and tossed his pants in the dirty laundry after taking everything out of his pockets, and pulled on his bed shorts, before looking over and seeing Tyler passed out. Shaking his head, he went into the bathroom to clean himself up and brush his teeth before passing out. Once ready, he fell onto his bed and slept harder than he had in awhile.

He woke up to Tyler pushing him, Reid not wanting to move until Tyler threatened to push him off the bed, which he had done in the past. Reid rolled onto his back, rubbing his eyes, before letting out a harsh breath and stopping, feeling his left eye swollen and raw. "What happened to you?" Tyler asked, Reid imagining Tyler looking at all the bruises that covered him.

"I need to remember first."

"Were you drunk or something?"

"No, I was sober. I just was hit a couple of times too hard..."

"Where were you at?"

"Concord."

"With that one chick again?"

"Yeah, her." Reid sat up, doing little stretches to figure out what part of him hurt more than the rest. Face, arms, chest, legs, and oh, lower back. He gave himself the all over verdict, which meant that the next three days were going to be hard. He stood up and grabbed a school uniform that was still hanging up, and within a few minutes, he was heading off with Tyler to the school. It took them five minutes to get to their main building, and soon they ran into Caleb and Pogue to Reid's dismay.

Reid tried looking away to hide to worse side of his face, but Caleb was faster than that. "What happened to you now?"

_Oh, thanks. Don't sound concerned or anything. _"Got outnumbered."

"How many?" Pogue asked.

"Seven to one, I think."

_At first it was just one, Jason. Soon more showed up, surrounding Reid. He wanted to grab his power, but if he beat them all without getting hurt, someone was going to question. First Jason came at him while everyone watched; the jealous ex-boyfriend. Reid started beating him when everyone decided to attack him. Jason gave him one good punch across the side of his face, knuckles crossing his eye, before someone tackled him to the ground, punching and kicking following afterward. Reid stayed in a ball, deflecting most of the blows until someone kicked him square in his lower back across his spine, causing him to yell and move his position, everyone taking advantage. Reid stayed still, hoping they'd leave him alone soon. When they did, less than ten minutes had passed since it all started. It took him another five though to get off of the ground and to his truck._

He looked at Caleb, not hearing what he said. He simply shrugged and walked towards his class, embracing the power lightly to help him walk straight. Once he sat down he released it and laid down on the desk until class started.

The day passed slowly, and to no surprise, Caleb came up and told him at the end of school that there was going to be meeting at seven, and to not be late this time. And, to no surprise, his phone began ringing at 3:15, reading Melanie. He answered, Melanie sounding surprised. "Reid! Hi! How are you?"

"Fine, thanks. What do you want?"

"I...I just wanted to apologize again for last night. I mean, I hope you're a little bit more clear-headed and not as angry and will hopefully listen to what I have to say..."

"If you want to speak before I hang up, say whatever now."

"Oh, uh, okay. Well, uh, Jason... Jason is going to have problems with you no matter what. You're much hotter and nicer and athletic and smarter and richer than him, and he was missing something about him that you have. There's something in your smile and your eyes whenever I see you that I didn't get with him, and he doesn't know how to react. I'm going to do my best to keep him away, but I really, really would like to continue seeing you Reid. I get my car back next month, and I'll drive down every night if I have to, just so I can see you. Please Reid, can we do something...soon? Or this weekend?"

Reid gave a small smile, wondering what this girl had done to him. "Yeah, that's fine. This weekend will be easier, I think. I have plans the rest of this week, but if you want to do something Friday night, I'll stay with you somehow until Sunday night, if you want."

"Oh Reid! You're the best. I'll try my hardest to also make this special for you."

"Okay, we'll see. I gotta go though. I have homework tonight that I should finish up on."

"Okay. I'll talk to you later than, okay?"

"K. Bye."

"Bye hun."

Reid hung up, staring at his phone. _Hun? We've barely been seeing each other for two weeks, and we are now on the pet names? Well...I guess we did sort of run the bases backwards and pretty fast, so it makes sense._

Reid walked back to the dorms, wondering if he should play any drinking games while doing homework, but he knew Caleb wouldn't appreciate him coming to the meeting drunk, no matter if he was sober with the powers help or not. Instead, he walked to his room and decided to take a nap until he had to leave for the meeting. He went into the room and saw that Tyler wasn't there, but didn't mind. _He's probably at the library flirting with the girl at the front desk._ He took off his school clothes and changed into shorts, before lying down on his bed and falling asleep.

XX—X—X—XX

Everything was blurry and muffled as he looked around. He saw Melanie at a party, wearing a pink tank top that showed a lot of cleavage, and a white skirt that showed a lot of leg. Her tan skin set off the white perfectly, and her bubbly smile made her that much more gorgeous. She walked up to Reid holding her cup, saying hi, Reid taken with her smile.

_Flash_

Everything was still blurry and muffled. They went back to her place, both stumbling out of his truck, drunk. Both laughing, they made it to her bed, quickly stripping and making out. He remembered her looking up at him, eyes a citrus green, an impossible green. He remembered her mouthing "please," and enough was said.

_Flash_

Everything was still blurry and muffled as he looked at Jason, not seeing his cronies surround him in the dark alleyway. Jason came up towards him and fists flew. He kicked Jason in the stomach, punched him the face, kicked him in the legs to bring him down. He was about to stomp on his chest when he was tackled from the right in the side, and from the left in the legs. Jason scrambled up and Reid was held still as Jason punched him across the face, hell breaking loose as he was dropped.

_Flash_

Everything was still blurry and muffled. He was driving back from Melanie's, in a good mood for once. He looked away from the road for a second to grab his water bottle, and then was slammed to the driver's door before falling to the passenger's, truck tipping and falling onto its side, truck moving until it slammed into a fence, Reid pinned between the top of the truck, the seats, and the door. He heard someone getting on the truck, and blinked blood out of his eyes as he saw someone looking down at him, holding a gun.

_Flash_

Everything was dark, with little sounds. His body hurt, and he couldn't grasp anything around him. His mind was longing for Melanie, wanting her here to make him feel better. "You walked out." Different voices said to him, "you're lost, alone, a traitor." He tried to shake his head, but he knew it was true. He felt something solid placed on his shoulder, removed, then came crashing down on the bones, Reid screaming. "If you're such a tough guy, why are you screaming? You have no emotion!" Then, the bat again across the rest of his body.

_Flash_

XX—X—X—XX

Reid jolted awake, his body stinging from the fight. _What the hell kind of dream was that? _He thought, feeling disoriented and slightly sick. He sat up, dizzy, and walked over to the little bathroom, holding onto the sink for support. After the nausea passed, he went back to the room and looked at the clock, seeing he had been asleep for two hours. "Better, I guess," he mumbled, sitting on his bed and pulling his backpack closer to him and pulling out some textbooks. "Homework time."

At six-thirty he put his books away and got dressed for the meeting, went down the stairs and stopped at the food court to grab some dinner, before going out to his truck. He still didn't see Tyler anywhere, which surprised him. _Unless he already left, but generally he'd let me know to make sure I was still coming... _Reid got into his truck and ate on the way to the Danvers First Colony House. It was seven exact when he parked and walked across the yard to the basement. When he entered, Caleb, Pogue, and Tyler were waiting for him.

"Sorry," he mumbled as he walked to his seat.

"Now that everyone is here, we can start."

"Caleb, what's the purpose of this meeting?" Pogue asked. "We see each other at school every day, and we know how our lives are. We don't really have any outside family, so why bother with the meetings?"

"If you really want to know, it's more of Brother time, where we don't have to be on our guard about ourselves. We can talk freely about whatever difficulties we're having and maybe we can solve them. We may see each other every day, but we don't always know how we're all doing."

"So this is like group therapy," Tyler said."

"If you would like to put it like that, then yes."

"Good to know," Reid muttered, leaning back.

"Now," Caleb said, "I've been talking with my mother, and she's been telling me how everyone else's family is doing, since we don't keep in touch much anymore. Tyler, your parents are doing fine, your mom arguing a bit with your father still. Pogue, your parents miss you. Reid, your dad says to graduate and your mom says to stay in town more often."

Reid rolled his eyes, waiting for Caleb to continue. "There's the family, now, how is everyone doing? School, Powers, friends, and relationships? Pogue?"

Pogue sighed, before saying, "School's fine, grades aren't any different, my power's are doing fine. I have a lot more control over them than when I ascended, and Kate and I are doing better than earlier this year."

"Reid?"

"Grades are no different, powers still saving my life, and yeah."

"What do you mean by your powers are saving your life?"

"They help me home late at night, basically."

"Tyler?"

"Ah...doing better than I have for awhile on homework, powers are still limited, and there's really nothing else."

The rest of the meeting continued on in the same manner. They went through each of their classes that were having trouble with, and Caleb and Pogue had a little period of time where Caleb showed Pogue tricks he could do with his power if he ever needed to Use. Tyler and Reid just talked, since they were the youngest. Reid's birthday was at the end of February, while Tyler's was over spring break, so they didn't have a whole lot longer, being it was only January.

When they were dismissed it was nine, and Reid gave Tyler a ride back to the dorms. "Where's your hummer?"

"At my parents. They thought I had a B, so they took it from me."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me."

"I'll get it back by the end of the week, but Pogue had to pick me up and take me over."

"Right... Well, if you need a ride, let me know. You've given me plenty in the past."

The rest of the ride was in silence, with rock music playing in the background. When they got back to the dorms, Reid wanted to drive to Concord and meet up with Melanie, but he knew he should stay in Ipswich for the rest of the week. _It'll only be a few more days. _When they got back to the dorms, Reid's phone went off, and he saw it was a party invite from a guy in his stats class. "Ty, what're you doing the rest of the night?"

Tyler looked up from his backpack, saying, "Well, it depends now."

"How drunk do you want to get?"

Tyler smiled. "It's a Monday night. I think I can handle a few games."

"Cool. We'll leave in an hour for Cole's place."

XX—X—X—XX

The rest of the week went by normal paced. The days went by slowly, but the nights went by quickly. Reid went out Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday night to a party, and Wednesday night he went to Nikki's with Tyler, and met up with Pogue and Caleb while they were there. As normal, a fight almost broke out between him and Aaron, but Caleb broke it up before Nikki did. On Friday night, Reid packed a bag for the weekend and took Tyler to get his hummer, before leaving for Concord. Only Tyler knew where he was going, and he was okay with that. He called Melanie on his way up, and she was a little bit too ecstatic about Reid coming up. He let it slide though, and enjoyed the ride up, the roads smoother than he expected.

Upon arrival, it was eight, and Melanie came out to greet him. Reid took a look around and didn't see Jason anywhere. "There's a party at this guy Mike's house. It's gonna be small, with good liquor. Hence why it's small. He's putting on a poker tournament as well, and winner gets a special treat. Interested?"

"Sure babe."

At the end of the night, Reid got second in the tournament, and left with two handles that had been carefully filled with coke and rum, and the guy, Jeff, who had won received three handles—two of his choice in liquor and one of his choice in mixture, which he had chosen jungle juice, ever clear, and Malibu. Reid and Melanie stumbled back to her apartment, taking back roads so they didn't get caught drunk driving, speeding, and a minor with the alcohol even though Melanie was twenty-one. "Did you have fun tonight?" Reid asked, Melanie laughing and falling against him in response.

"Yeah, of course I did silly." They made it back to her place, and the rest of the weekend was eventful as that night.

Sunday night came around much differently than Reid had hoped. More than once he saw Jason lurking around town, seeming to follow him and Melanie wherever they went. He didn't see him for more than a few seconds, but even then that was less than reassuring. They went out to lunch, did some shopping, and went out to dinner, trying to remain as occupied as possible before he had to leave. After dinner and as they were walking back to his truck, Melanie spoke up.

"Reid, this...this night, or, day has been fantastic. This has been the best weekend ever and you're one of the best guys that I know. Really."

"It's not a problem. You're a good girl, you know."

Melanie blushed as Reid opened the door for her and helped her get in, before going around to his side and getting in himself. They kissed before they left, and missed the watchers in the background.

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All right...there's chapter one. Hopefully there's not too many grammar and spelling mistakes... I'm kinda not really paying attention. Anywho. I hope you all enjoyed this, and please let me know what you think and I'll do my best to get back to you :) Questions...comments...concerns... Bring it :P

So, being that the story is mostly done, i'm going to do my best to post as often as i can, but since i dont have internet...yeah...this'll be fun. Until next time.


	2. Black Out

**Chapter 2**

Another two weeks passed, the weekends for Reid turning out more and more like his very first weekend with Melanie. He had an amazing time with Melanie, and was disappointed when she couldn't hang out at the beginning of February. "Next week is Valentine's Day though, and you're going to be available then, right?" he asked, Melanie's bubbly personality showing again.

"Yes! Yes, of course! I wouldn't miss if for the world, but I'm still really sorry. Family and job stuff has come up and I really can't ignore it. But, I'll see you next weekend, and I'll call you this week, okay? Will that work?"

Reid smiled. "Yes babe, it'll work. I'll talk to you later then, okay?"

"K hun, bye!"

"Bye."

Reid hung up his phone and laid back against his truck seat, attempting to stop the smile that was creeping on his face. _What the hell is it about this girl that has got me so hung up on her? I've never felt this way about anyone... I don't know what it is, but I've got to get it under control, especially before Caleb and Pogue start questioning it. _

He got out of the truck and walked up to the dorms, wondering if Tyler was going to be in the dorms tonight. _Well, since it's a Friday night, I guess I can give him a surprise. Maybe he'd want to go out and have some fun. _Reid walked up the stairs to his floor and unlocked the door, and saw what he hoped he'd never see again. He closed the door to keep it from being awkward, and sat down, deciding to wait. _Ty, is this what you've been up to since I was gone? You little player. _

Sometime later the chick from the library rushed out, Reid standing up and going into the room, trying not to laugh at Tyler's awkwardness. "How long have you known her?"

"Like...two months." Reid nodded, trying not to laugh. "What's so funny?" Tyler asked, looking upset.

"You're all grown up, baby boy. It's really adorable."

"Fuck off. Just because you've had sex before all of us..."

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure you've beat Pogue and Caleb."

"Don't wanna know, don't care to know. So. Why aren't you in Concord this weekend?"

"Melanie couldn't hang out. Since she can't, you care to go out tonight? Start at Nikki's, move onto possibly Cole's or Justin's afterward?"

Tyler nodded. "Sure, sounds good."

XX—X—X—XX

The one thing that Reid hated and loved about Nikki's is that he could do whatever he wanted. But, because of this, he was more likely to either get in trouble by Nikki, or by everyone else. Reid and Tyler brought water bottles to Nikki's with their special mix of alcohol called "the shocker." It consisted of raspberry vodka and raspberry rum, with kool-aid as a juice. Horrible mixer, but it got them drunk quickly and after they got used to it, it wasn't that bad. They went over to Nikki's and played some pool, drinking slowly from the bottles to not raise suspicion. Tyler almost shuddered, but Reid came and poked him in the side, Tyler jumping in surprise and was able to get over the alcohol.

After three games and almost losing to Aaron and the boys, Reid and Tyler decided to part before anyone started throwing punches. On the way out, Reid lit a cigarette, Tyler looking at him. "Where did you get that?"

"Melanie bought them for me last week."

Tyler nodded and Reid pulled out his phone, asking Cole to see if he knew of any parties. They leaned against Reid's truck, Tyler drinking, Reid trading off between drinking and smoking. "Hey, there's a party at this kid's house, Maurice. I have directions if you wanna go," Reid said, Tyler shrugging.

"Sure, why not."

They both climbed into the truck and Reid drove, relying on his power to get him to the house with no problems. When they made it, they both almost fell out of the truck, Reid on different types of buzzed, while the alcohol was beginning to affect Tyler. "Dude...I don't know about this," Tyler said, supporting himself on the truck. "I think I drank the bottle to fast."

"You're fine. We'll throw some beer in you and you'll be fine."

Reid and Tyler walked up to the house seeing people they knew, which was a good sign. "In high school and we're already doing shit like this... We're gonna be pros in college," Tyler said, grinning like a madman.

Reid laughed, saying, "True, true my friend." They walked up the stone steps and opened the door, music meeting their ears. "Hell yes," Reid said, looking around to see everyone who was there. _Marie, Michael, Jon, Sebastian, Cory, Kevin, Liz, Tara...good amount of people. _

Someone came up and handed them cups, pointing to where the keg was. To Reid's happiness, for once it was something decent—Bud Light. Tyler stared at it, saying, "How the hell did they get this?"

"Look at the house we're in Ty. Maurice is one of the richest kids in school. He's staying here with an aunt who lives in Boston. He basically lives here alone, and it's really not that hard to find someone who's over 21 who will buy for you."

"Dude that was way too many words. Whatever. Alcohol. Drunk me. Now."

Reid laughed. "You're already there."

They wandered around for awhile, managed to get a few games of beer pong in and dominated for a few rounds, and after midnight decided to leave. Maurice bid them a good night, various people asking if they were okay to get home. To some girl, Reid couldn't remember her name, he said, "Don't worry hun, we are more fine than you know."

They walked off, Reid supporting Tyler and helping him into the truck. "Are you gonna be okay?" he asked, Tyler looking drunk and white.

"Yeah," he breathed out, laughing and almost falling out of the truck.

"Stay in the truck okay, we're almost back to the dorms, okay?"

"We're moving? Really? How are you standing next to me and driving at the same time? Is this a new power skill?"

"No Tyler, you're imagining all of this, okay?"

"Okay, man, this is so crazy."

Reid shut the door and got in on his side, started the truck, and rolled the windows down. Reid grabbed his power and laughed as Tyler hung his head out the window, breathing in the air. The power led them back home, and they were able to get back up to the dorms and halfway up the stairs before Tyler finally fell, dragging Reid down with him. Tyler began laughing and not trying to get up. Reid rubbed his knee and where his left arm was stinging, and picked up Tyler and carried him back up to their room.

Reid set him on the bed, before releasing the power and falling onto his bed, going from drunk to trashed in less than a second. The room was spinning, he could barely breathe, and he lost feeling in his body. _Sadly...this is what I live for. It feels so fucking good. _

He fell asleep, and woke up bright and early (two pm) to his cell phone ringing, and picked it up, not bothering to look at the name. "Faggot, I bet you had a ton of fun last night. Too bad you weren't fucking your little playmate. She's such a golden bitch you have no idea. I'm gonna be keeping an eye on her, and her fine little pussy."

Reid was about to respond when the guy hung up on him. Reid was confused as hell, mainly because he was more hung over than he wanted, that wasn't what he wanted to wake up to, and he couldn't remember if he had to do anything important. He rolled back over, looked at Tyler, and saw him passed out still, luckily lying on his stomach, back and shoulders slightly moving to show he was alive.

Reid fell asleep once more, almost forgetting about the phone call until he woke up three hours later, showered, still hung over. Melanie called him as he was going to dinner, and she sounded happy. "Hey Reid! What's up? How are you?"

"Ah, I'm good, going to dinner, and still a bit hung over. How about you?"

"I'm good, just missing you."

"That's good...uh, can I ask what you did last night?"

"Sure. I hung out with my mom, dad, and grandparents. For once went to bed at a decent hour, and I've been doing yard work all day."

"Oh, wow. Okay, never mind then."

"Why do you ask?"

Reid explained the phone call to her, and asked if it could be Jason. She said she wouldn't know how, because he didn't get Reid's phone number through her, on top of the fact that she hadn't seen Jason in over a week. Reid cut her off as they reached the food court, and said he'd talk to her later. They met up with Caleb and Pogue, sat down, and Caleb took one look at them before saying, "You smell like alcohol."

"Still? Huh...must need better shower stuff," Reid said, looking at the menu for dinner.

"You guys are better than this. I don't know how you can just spend all your parents money on alcohol, and not feel guilty."

"We're in their wills, and I happen to come from a line of alcoholics," Reid said, Tyler continuing to stay silent.

"It's going to ruin you guys. Just watch. If you've ever Used while drinking, it's one of the worst things you can do to yourself. You become more addicted to drinking, as well as to Using, and it's the only thing that can seem to ever satisfy your life. It's a stupid habit to get into, and one that's hard to break."

"How the fuck do you know everything? It can't all be in the Book." Reid glared at Caleb, not buying the lecture.

"If you've ever fully read it Reid, you'd be surprised." Caleb decided to turn on Tyler. "What about you Tyler? Do you have anything to say?"

He looked up. "No. I don't really Use when I'm drunk. Or at least I don't think I do."

Caleb only nodded, and looked at Pogue, who shrugged. "Don't bring me into this. This isn't my ordeal, and I didn't bring it up."

The rest of the weekend Reid avoided Caleb and Pogue, Tyler visiting with Sasha, the other two Brothers, and doing the occasional homework with Reid. Reid thought he'd be clever and try to get ahead of his classes for the week, but it was slow going and he was often talking to Melanie instead. When they walked into the dining hall for breakfast on Monday morning, Caleb looked at the two of them, saying, "You don't smell like alcohol. I'm surprised."

"Well, maybe it's because I decided to get ahead on this week's homework so I can party twice as hard during the night and maybe even get lucky enough to come to class drunk to spice things up a bit."

Caleb glared at him, which caused Reid to smirk. Reid walked away and grabbed food, Tyler following. They sat back at the table in silence, and when ready walked across campus towards their classes. They split off for their first hours, and Reid welcomed the separation. Caleb had been breathing down his neck more than usual, and if he could Use to see what Reid was thinking, he would do that to an ungodly amount.

Reid sat at his place, laying down across the desk. When he next opened his eyes, he was sitting up against his seat, the lecture almost over. He looked down to his notebook that was in front of him and saw notes, but it wasn't his handwriting. It was messier, and half of it was backwards or not even on the line. He stared at it, wondering what happened. The girl next to him was getting ready for the end of the period, not looking scared or out of it, or anything besides bored. He shut his notebook, deciding to look at it later, when he asked her, "Was I really paying attention all hour?"

She looked startled, before answering, "Yeah, I guess from what I could tell..."

He nodded and the bell rang, Reid grabbing his backpack and beating everyone else out of the classroom. He went to his second hour, sitting next to Tyler. He pulled out his notebook from the first class and opened it to the page, looking closely at the words. It began following what he supposed the lecture was about, but the words that were backwards was something completely different.

"What's that?" Tyler asked, looking over.

"Notes."

"Right..."

Reid translated the backwards words, and still didn't understand what it meant. _Do it right, do it wrong, the line is as thin as her thong. Your eyes lay upon her, oh yes sir, yes sir. She is your toy, isn't that right boy? Watch behind, always look back, because if you don't, you will be attacked._

_What the fuck is this? _Reid reread it again and again, before showing it to Tyler. "This is what I came up with in history."

He watched Tyler read it and reread it before giving it back. "That's what was written backwards?"

"Yeah."

"What...?"

Reid looked at it again and put it away when their government teacher began speaking. He faded out again, pretending to sleep. He opened his eyes long enough at the end of the class to write down the homework, and pack up his things. On the way out, Tyler said, "Dude, I think you took better notes than I even did."

"I was sleeping. How is that possible?"

"You weren't sleeping. Trust me."

Reid shook his head, wondering what was going on. He continued on with the rest of the day as the first two periods. He'd fall asleep, and wake up with notes written down and random backwards letters would be scattered around the page. When he had gone back to the dorm to work on his homework, he looked through the rest of his notes, gathering the letters. Looking at the letters _O U E D T K O D Y N O B L H N O I, _he stared at them, wondering what they meant. He spent the next half hour figuring it out, finally coming up with _DONT LOOK BEHIND YOU. _

_What? _Reid looked behind him, and saw something that he wasn't expecting to see. He blacked out before he was able to get any noise out and fell off of his bed, just lying on the floor. He felt a chill over his body and didn't want his vision to return suddenly. _They can't touch me, they can't touch me...it's against what the Book has said if they touch me... _He laid still as he felt the Darkling hovering above him, most likely looking down at Reid, wondering why he was on the ground. _Providing the stupid things can think._

When Reid didn't feel the cool air anymore, he was able to open his eyes and see once again. He looked around his room, and saw it was three hours later than when he had figured out what the message said. _What the fuck is happening? _He stood up and looked at himself, saw he was a little roughed up, but he had also worn these clothes the day before. He went over to his nightstand to where his phone was, and saw that no one had called or texted him. He called Tyler, finally hearing his voice.

"What's up?"

"Hey...where are you? It's ten."

"Pogue and I are doing our English essays."

"Really? Thanks for inviting me."

"Dude, you were gone, otherwise I would've."

_Gone? What's he talking about. _"No... I've been here the whole time."

Tyler laughed. "Whatever you say man. I was in the room for an hour, and I didn't see you once."

Reid looked at his watch. "What time were you in here?"

"Seven to eight. Why?"

_That had to be right after I blacked out...I figured out the words almost at seven. So, what the fuck happened? _"Ah...just wondering. Did I leave any notes behind or anything?"

"No... Is this relating back to what happened second hour?"

"Yeah, actually. I'm going to go look at the rest of my homework to see if ah, anything was finished."

"Right... I'll be back within an hour, so I'll see you then, okay?"

"Yeah, see ya." Reid hung up, letting his head fall into his hands. _What the hell is going on? Blank periods where I'm actually doing shit? Isn't that going backwards of what we all are taught? If you black out or pass out or whatever you're supposed to stay in one spot. Supposedly. But what's going on with me? How am I moving around, still feeling what's around me...cold. The cold air. My truck. _

Reid jumped up and left the room, running down the stairs and out to the parking lot. _I parked in the second row, about halfway down. Caleb's mustang should be close, providing he hasn't moved it because of the snow. _Reid walked to where his truck should be, and stopped when there was a little Nissan parked in his spot. He looked at the ground, and recognized his shoe prints, but wondered where they were leading back to the dorms. _There's ten rows. I've searched in larger parking lots..._

He glanced over the first row and continued on, finally finding his truck in what he would guess is the exact same spot, only in the ninth row. He looked down at the fresh snow and only saw his shoe prints. _Fuck my life! What's going on?_

He pulled his keys out and unlocked his truck, noticing the cab was still warm. He moved his truck into a better spot, got out, and headed inside, suddenly tired. Once back into the dorm, he laid down on his bed and that was that.

* * *

Hey there! So...week number 2 on red waters. Not bad, and I am thankful that I'm able to post directly a week after the first chapter... It's a start. So. Here's where the story truly starts :) Hopefully the story is all right so far still... It'll get better, I swear. So. Now that this is posted, I'm going to carry on with illegal activities since it's my meds for a longboarding accident i got into last night... :P Hopefully there will be an update next week from my own computer and not my schools... Yay internet ^_^


	3. Forget About It

**Chapter 3**

Reid woke up once more to Tyler shoving him, threatening once more to push him off the bed. "One sec, one sec." Reid slowly rolled over, feeling like his head had been run over with a train. "Why am I feeling like shit?" he asked as he sat up.

"Because you went over to Jeff's last night and I had to go pick your butt up at one."

Reid looked at Tyler. "What?"

"You heard me. Now get up and get dressed, otherwise we're gonna be late."

Reid stood up, unable to bring more than two thoughts together. "How fucked was I?"

"Throwing up all over the bathroom for two hours fucked."

_Shit! _"Where was I when you got back?"

"Not here again. I texted you and you said you got tired of waiting around and Jeff came and picked you up. You got a hold of some girl who bought you alcohol and that was that. I didn't get another text 'til almost one, and you were freaking out and I was glad when you finally passed out. I'm assuming you don't remember any of this?"

Reid shook his head. "No. I went to bed right after I called you."

They left the room, Reid barely able to walk straight. On the way outside he slipped on the floor, falling and hitting his elbows hard on the ground. "Today's going to be a bad day for you dude."

"I can't remember anything from yesterday, I get these weird notes, I get more shitfaced than ever and I can't even remember, and now I'm fuckin' slipping and falling. This is a fantastic twenty-four hours."

Reid stood up with Tyler's help, Tyler helping him towards the classrooms. "Well, if it's only twenty-four hours, it should be done soon, right?"

"Hopefully."

When Tyler left Reid to go to his own class, Reid dealt with his hangover and the lecture, even managing to take notes and not pass out. He slept in his second hour while Tyler took notes, and felt slightly better in his third hour. "Any more blacking out?" Tyler asked as they headed out of second.

"Unless I was taking notes all last period, than no more blacking out."

The rest of the morning went as smooth as possible, Caleb commenting on how Reid looked like shit.

"Drop it Caleb."

"Someone have a rough night?"

"No. I'm just trying to figure shit out."

Reid sat down and laid his head in his arms and slept the lunch hour, not having any dreams that he was happy with.

"_My Baby!" Melanie called, running out to Reid in her hot pink tank top and short white skirt, wearing white heels with little hot pink hearts over them. _

"_Hey, how are you?" Reid asked, kissing her on the lips, her long brown hair framing her blue eyes perfectly. _

_She smiled, saying, "I'm good. I've only been missing you the entire time!"_

_Reid nodded and looked back over to his truck out of habit, and turned back, seeing Jason in his arms and Melanie in Chase's arms, a knife held to her neck. Reid jumped away, but Jason pulled out his own knife and held it close to Reid. "If you move, she gets it. Now, stand here." Reid complied, Melanie close to tears. "This is for taking my queen away," Jason whispered in Reid's ear, before stabbing him in the stomach with the knife. Reid fell as Melanie screamed, Reid trying to hold off the pain. He grabbed at his power, but he was kicked across the head._

"_Ah, ah, ah, that'd be a naughty boy, if you went for your special toy." Reid looked up, seeing Chase above him instead. He kicked Reid square in the back, causing him to yell, and move with the knife still in his stomach. He pulled it out, and tried to stab it in Chase's foot, but missed._

"_Silly boy! Where are you learning these stupid tricks?"He was kicked again in the back, before Chase bent down next to him. "How have you been brother? I've missed you dearly these last two months."_

"_You're dead, you're gone, and you're only a part of my imagination now," Reid said, meeting Chase's eyes._

"_That is what you believe. And, because this is all a part of your mind, I suppose you are right. But, is this real too?"_

_He felt the knife pressed down to his throat, and slice through. Reid went to grab the knife, but Chase pushed his hands away. He finished cutting his throat, Reid gagging and losing his breath, Chase's eyes being the last thing he saw._

The next thing Reid knew was Tyler was shaking him awake. Reid opened his eyes, feeling worse than he did when he woke up. "Hey, you okay? You're looking really white."

"Bad dream," he replied before standing up and falling over onto Tyler. "Shit, sorry," he said, his vision swaying before darkening. "So... I may need some help."

"I'll get it," he last remembered Tyler saying, before all went dark and numb.

When he next was aware of his surroundings, he was sitting on his bed, notebooks laid out in front of him. He looked over and saw Tyler sitting on his bed, doing his math homework. "What...what the hell?" Reid asked, beginning to lose control of his usually calm demeanor.

"Hey, Reid, are you okay?" He felt Tyler rush up next to him as he fell against his headboard, having a hard time breathing.

Reid wanted to know what was happening to him. He was losing control of everything, yet he heard himself respond, "I'm fine. Just... I'm not sure."

His voice was much calmer than he was feeling, and he made himself open his eyes. He saw Tyler above him, looking worried. "Why do I not believe that?"

Reid took in a breath, responding with, "Because you shouldn't. Tyler, what's been going on? What have I done all day?"

"Ah... What do you mean?"

"I last remember talking to you at lunch, saying, 'I'll get it.' What have I done since then?"

Tyler stared at him, obviously confused. "Ah...you straightened up right after that, and you seemed fine. You said it must have been the dream. We went to our classes, finished the day, came back here, then went to dinner, and we just got back. You seemed all eager to do your homework, and you wouldn't stop pestering me about it. You've been quiet the last five minutes."

Reid let out a groan. "I don't remember any of that. Nothing. Fucking hell, what's going on?"

"Do I need to go get Pogue? I think Caleb may be in there too."

Reid didn't know. He felt his mind spinning, and he sat up saying, "Yeah, let's go get them before I do something."

"What're we going to tell them?"

"I don't know. That I've gone more psycho than normal?"

Tyler shook his head as Reid stood up, holding onto Tyler for balance. When he was steady they slipped on their shoes and left, heading towards the end of the hall. Tyler knocked on the door, Reid getting impatient. Pogue answered, and was surprised when he saw Tyler and Reid. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We _are_ your friends. Is Caleb here?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Reid looked over and saw Caleb standing up. Pogue was looking at Reid oddly, causing Reid to say, "What did I do to you now?"

"That's the thing. Nothing," Pogue responded, as Caleb opened the door more.

"What's going on?"

Tyler pointed to Reid, saying, "He's having some problems with memory loss."

Caleb looked at him oddly, before pulling the door open. "Let's check him out then."

It felt weird being in Caleb and Pogue's room. Caleb had moved back in for the last semester, but still went home quite often. Everyone often times met outside of the dorms, or in Reid and Tyler's room. Caleb and Pogue's room seemed a lot emptier, but they mainly didn't have as many posters as Reid and Tyler did. Reid sat down on the end of Pogue's bed, Tyler sitting beside him, Pogue and Caleb sitting on Caleb's bed as Caleb sat across from Reid.

"So, what about these memory losses?"

Reid put his head in his hands, not wanting to meet Caleb's eyes. "Example. Today after lunch, when Tyler woke me up, did you guys see me afterward?"

Pogue spoke up. "Yeah, we all have sixth and seventh hour together, and then you came to dinner with us."

Reid looked up. "I don't remember any of that."

Caleb only looked at Reid. "You honestly don't?"

"No. I last remember speaking to Tyler right after he woke me up."

"You sure were obnoxious enough at dinner..." Pogue muttered.

"Actually," Tyler said, "he was fairly quiet compared to how he can be, and he kept on bothering me about the homework, remember?"

Pogue and Caleb nodded. "How many of these blackouts do you normally have?" Caleb asked.

"They started yesterday. I...should probably show you my notes then."

Reid left the room and went back to his dorm room, grabbing all of his notebooks. He took them back to Caleb's room, and sat back down, flipping through the pages. "This is how my handwriting normally looks," he said, and then flipped to the notes from earlier. "And this is what they look like when I'm blacked out and in class." He showed him all of the backwards words, and looked through the notes from today. He saw more backwards letters and asked for a pencil. He saw the letters _O R A G I N D Y L N R F U I E O E W I. _He looked for a pattern around the notebook, but that didn't really help. Tyler looked at it as well, and it didn't take as long as it had before.

" 'You're failing now Reid?' What does that mean?"

"I don't know. I don't know what anything means anymore."

"These notes are quite interesting. What's the backwards stuff in your history book?"

"Turn the page."

Caleb did and read the poem, before looking at Reid. "How did you come up with this?"

"I didn't. Or, that I'm aware of. I just saw it, and it doesn't make any sense."

"How often do these blackouts occur?"

"Yesterday every hour, and then today from lunch until we basically came in."

"I'm going to keep this poem and check the Book for anything. If I find any key words, I'll see what they mean."

"Thanks."

Reid grabbed his stuff and went back into the room, Tyler saying something before following. When Tyler caught up to him, Reid looked at him and said with a stern voice, "If I go anywhere tonight, don't let me. I want to stay in and go to bed sometime and I want to be sober as well. If you have to tie me up...just explain before I get up."

Tyler nodded and both entered the room, sitting down on their beds and setting up their homework. Reid relaxed the rest of the night, trying to get his head back together. He looked over his notes from class, and had to rewrite a few of them because the handwriting was so horrible. When it was time for him to for once get a good night's sleep, he brushed his teeth and hopped in bed, Tyler doing the same. "Are you going to try to escape tonight?" Tyler asked before he shut off the light.

"I hope not. I just want to sleep and try not to feel as shitty as I did this morning."

"Sounds like a plan."

Tyler flipped off the lights, and Reid laid there for awhile, wondering when...whatever...kicked in. _When I'm tired, I guess. So, what does this mean? Am I going to fade out like I have been doing and go do only god knows what? I hope not... I just want to live long enough to see Melanie. _

Reid smiled. He was going to see Melanie this weekend, and it was going to be worthwhile, just because he could make it meaningful. His truck could survive the snow easily, and even because of that, they could have some fun as well. _I wonder if she wants to go snowmobiling... That would be a date. _

Reid fell asleep to thoughts of Melanie, and when he heard the alarm go off in the morning, he was decently awake. Tyler hit the snooze button and Reid complied, going back to sleep for five more minutes. He heard the alarm go off again and he thought he heard Tyler's voice but the darkness was falling around him again. He tried to struggle against it, but he could barely get his voice out.

The next time he was able to open his eyes, it was lunch and he was about to take a bite out of pizza. He dropped the pizza and jumped back, falling out of his chair. He was trying his best not to panic as everyone began looking over. He sat back on his chair, taking deep breaths and controlling his shaking. When he looked up, the three were looking at him, taking in his looks. "This is the real Reid, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he said, trying to calm down still.

"Thought something was off by how easily you jumped out of bed this morning," Tyler said.

"I was good the first time your alarm went off. Then I thought five more minutes wouldn't be bad. I think I heard it go off the second time but that's when I was slipping away."

"So you don't have any control over this I take it?" Caleb asked, Reid simply nodding. He pushed the pizza away, sick.

"I fucking hate pizza. You guys should know this." Reid looked up and saw the guys looking at each other.

"That's what we said," Tyler said. "But then you said this girl that you've been hanging out with got you back into liking it. You seemed just fine eating it..."

Reid shuddered. He hated the texture of the melted cheese and the taste of the crust. He liked the individual ingredients, but something about them all together always made him sick. He laid his head down on the table before deciding to look at his notebooks. When he opened them, he saw the bad handwriting once more, and the backwards letters. He grabbed a pencil and saw the letters were already fairly organized. Caleb glance over as Reid was switching a few of the letters around, and read, _Good luck Caleb._

"Wait, what does this have to do with me?"

"Have you looked at the poem yet?" Caleb shook his head. "That's probably it then."

Tyler looked at his watch. "We got five minutes left."

Reid nodded and put his notebooks away, ready for the rest of the day. He saw everyone keeping an eye on him in each of his classes, which he was fine with. He felt a little better by the end of the day, and went over to the Danvers' First Colony House with Caleb right after school, looking up the meanings for the poem. "Key things...it's all around about a girl. There's the line between right and wrong, how she's your toy, and checking behind you, which can lead to paranoia."

"That sounds about right."

Caleb flipped through the books, using his power to help find certain words. Reid looked around the rest of the basement, trying to find something useful to either do or look at. He found a book that his great-great-great-grandfather wrote, and was about to pull it out when Caleb spoke up. "I think I found something. 'If a girl is mentioned in any sort of rhymes, the first girl of meaning that comes to mind must be ignored.' Random stuff... And... 'Depending on which matter this female is written about depends on which actions the male must take.' For you, since she's referenced to as a toy, or sex item, you basically should just stay away from her.

"It says that if things with this girl get worse between you too, as in, there's more sex and things similar to that, you can create a spell out of this, or even one of us can unknowingly create it, wrap it around you, and basically trap you to her."

"What about the paranoia stuff?" Reid didn't know what to think. _How can something like this come out to that?_

"Let me look... Got it. The paranoia mentioned in the poem is referring to normal stuff. If this were to become a spell, the early effects would consist of leaving our friendship overall, guarding your personal items, aggressive personality, things like that."

Reid shook his head. "Do you think that any of this has to do with the black outs?"

"Possibly... Blackouts are more of a medical condition, and we can't afford to go to the doctor with our powers. If they do any testing, who knows, with the equipment today, they may be able to pick something up that they can't explain and may want to do some experiments."

"That's fine. I don't care much for doctors anyway."

Caleb nodded. "I think we'll be fine for now, but we just need to keep an eye on you and what you're doing before these blackouts happen."

"I can tell you for sure it's when I'm tired or resting my eyes."

Caleb nodded slowly, thinking. "Well, we're going to Nikki's tonight, and you seem more rested, so you should be fine tonight."

"Tomorrow though? Or even later tonight since its Wasted Wednesday?"

Caleb shook his head. "I don't know. We'll just have to do certain things to see if it's the real you or not."

Reid nodded, not liking the sound of that. _And if it's not? What are they going to do? Use on me? Take me in for questioning? Who am I kidding? They probably would. _"Look at my handwriting and you can tell for sure."

Caleb nodded and he stood up, putting the Book of Shadows away. Reid followed him out of the house and back into the car. "We'll get to the bottom of this. I'm hoping it goes away soon."

"Me too."

Reid was quiet on the ride back and Caleb dropped him off. "I have to run home and help my mom with a few things before I go to Nikki's tonight. Save some of the fun for me."

Reid nodded. "Will do."

Reid walked back up to his room, annoyed with everything that was happening. He wasn't in the mood to do his homework, and when he unlocked the door, Tyler wasn't in the room. "Great, this is joyous." He laid on his bed, wondering what to do. He still had three hours before they were going to go to Nikki's, and all he had to do was ponder the poem. _Maybe I'll call Melanie. I bet she'd like that... But if the poem is about her then I shouldn't talk to her all that much. But that's the thing. I need to talk to her. It's been awhile._

Reid ended up calling Melanie, and he felt at peace while he talked with her. She had another two days before he came down and she couldn't wait, which was the same with him. When he finished talking to her, he felt better and didn't mind lying on his bed afterward.

_None of this spell stuff can happen or be real. Why would I set a spell on myself, or why would any of the other guys? They'd rather put spells on me to keep me away from her. All of this is just bullshit. This weekend will be perfect. It'll be Valentine's Day and I'll officially ask her out. She is the only one so far to make me feel, or even think like this for anyone._

Reid sat up, grabbing his backpack. He still had time to kill before going over to Nikki's, and he could redo the notes from the first half of the day. _Oh joy, here we go again. Where the hell is Tyler? _Reid looked down at his notes, not much of it making sense. He did the best he could to finish the worksheets, textbook questions, and short answers. _My grades are going to slip if this keeps up. Tyler needs to look over these... _Reid grabbed his phone again, his curiosity rising when he saw they were supposed to be leaving in ten minutes.

He texted Tyler and got up, changing for Nikki's. He threw on a white long-sleeved shirt with a black t-shirt over it, dark jeans, black beanie, and his gloves. He grabbed his jacket and everything else he needed, then headed down to Pogue's room. He heard his phone go off as he reached Pogue's room, and looked at it as he knocked on the door. Pogue answered, first saying, "Where's Tyler?"

"He said he'll meet us at Nikki's. Other than that I'm not sure. You ready?" Pogue nodded, shutting his door and locking it.

They walked down the hall, Pogue saying, "Are you going to take your truck tonight?"

"I'm not sure. Tyler will have his, but I don't know what his plans are for afterward, and you won't go out with me tonight."

Pogue shook his head. "I'll consider it when I'm in college. I want my senior year to be as sober as possible."

Reid shrugged as they reached the doors. "We'll take separate cars then. I'll follow you out." Reid went towards his truck, sighing. _It's too cold to party, but it just means that there's more alcohol to go around. Hopefully tonight ends well. _He drove to the south side of town, seeing the bar's lights almost right away. He saw some cars that he recognized from the school and chuckled to himself. _Some of the only excitement this town can provide for us. _He parked on the street and got out while he watched Pogue look for an actual spot. _Ha, his Audi's going to have a fun time getting out of here. _Reid went up to the door as Pogue found a spot, and they both walked in together.

Reid headed towards the pool table, looking for Tyler. When he only saw Aaron and his friends, he went towards the tables and saw him sitting down, Pogue joining him. Reid headed over saying, "Where've you been all night? I needed you to check my answers."

"Sasha needed help writing a draft of her final paper, and she helped me with mine in return. I asked if she wanted to come to Nikki's as well, but she said she had to go to youth group or something like that tonight."

Reid had a grin on his face. "You like a little Christian girl? How the hell does that happen? That has to be against something in the Book."

"She's not Christian. She only has to play it because her parents are. It's a complicated but funny story, really."

Reid shook his head as Pogue looked away. "Caleb's here," Pogue said, standing up. Reid and Tyler looked over, and saw that Caleb had brought Sarah and Kate as well.

Reid looked at Tyler, asking, "Pool?" Tyler smiled and they both stood up, heading over towards where Aaron was playing. "Is it sad that this game never gets old?"

Tyler nodded. "Yeah, in a way. But it's too much fun to just stop."

"Isn't everything in life?"

Tyler laughed as they walked up to the table, Aaron looking at the two of them. "What do you fuckers want?"

"How's your game going tonight?" Reid asked.

"It's going better than yours has been lately."

Reid looked at Tyler. "Sorry about that. How about a rematch? We'll try to play nice this time."

Aaron smirked and nodded, Tyler saying quietly, "I don't know about nice, Reid. We don't have alcohol this time."

"Well...we'll just have that much more fun then."

The games were even at first, before Reid got bored and started pulling out his trick shots, barely Using. He had gotten better in general, but the power still helped. Aaron, as usual, began getting mad and calling Reid a fake and show off. "How about this. I do a shot, and you see if you can copy it. If you can, than you choose a shot and I have to copy it. We each get three chances."

"You and your stupid games. Fine. We'll do it. If you lose, you have to dress in drag for school on Friday since there's no dress code that day."

Reid smirked. "I like that. I think you'd be more suited for it though since you have longer hair. If you lose, you have to sing to Kristina May tomorrow, and instead of telling her how gorgeous she is, you have to tell her how unattractive she is until you get her to cry."

Aaron looked grim. Kristina May was definitely one of the most gorgeous girls in school, and she was too full of herself to get upset. "Fine. We have a deal." They shook, and Reid took first shot, starting off simple.

Tyler and everyone else watched as they did shot after shot, Reid playing fair. _This is actually a lot of fun, and he's better than I thought he was. But...we're both running out of ideas, so how about this? _Reid took aim for the one ball, hopped the cue ball over the one ball, and watched the cue ball zigzag back up and hit the nine ball into the corner pocket. He looked at Aaron, who looked pissed. "How the fuck did you do that?"

"I got tired of waiting for you to lose, so I pulled something that's above you."

By the look on Aaron's face, Reid knew he was right. And he only used his power to give the cue ball consistent speed after it had hit the end of the table and was working its way back up. "You're a fucking cheater. I don't know how yet, but you're a fucking cheater."

Reid sighed. _Here we go again. _"Look, Aaron. Some people have natural skills, and some people don't. I have skills, and you don't. Is that clear enough for you? If you want I can make a list of everything I'm better at then you."

Aaron's face grew red, which was Reid's only warning as he jumped towards Reid, Reid jumping onto the table to avoid him. He got off before Nikki saw, and they swiftly walked outside before they got in trouble again. Aaron followed close behind and got to the end of the parking lot before Aaron jumped on Reid's back. Reid met the snow on the ground and the fight was on. He glanced up enough to see Tyler stopping Seth from joining Aaron, and Tyler being punched across the face for his interference.

Reid threw Aaron off of him, and kicked him in the chest. "Quit being a sore loser. And call your fucking friends off. They had nothing to do with any of this. It's between you and me dick."

Reid shook the snow off of his front, glad there wasn't any breeze. "Fine asshole, let's go. We're off of Nikki's property so he can't stop us."

Reid looked at Tyler, who looked fine, then to Seth and saw a bloody nose. _Glad Ty still knows how to fight. _Reid looked back at Aaron, grinned, and dodged a fist to his face. He went low and swung at Aaron's stomach with his left hand, hitting him in the side instead. He felt Aaron elbow him in the spine, so Reid brought his head up fast and felt Aaron's chin contact with the back of his head. Aaron yelled, Reid stumbling back, eyes watering. After a few seconds, he ran towards Aaron and tackled him to the ground, punching him across the face. He felt two people grab his shirt and lift him off, and saw it was Seth and Kyle. Tyler grabbed onto the back of Seth, but Aaron was already getting up.

Reid managed to get his shirt out of Kyle's grip, but it was as Aaron kicked Reid across his legs at the knee. Reid lost his balance and felt Aaron kick him in the side, and lost his breath. He was being lifted again and was punched across the face, before being thrown to the snow once more. "I believe I'm better than you at this," he heard Aaron say, Aaron putting his hand on the back of Reid's head and shoving it down to the pavement.

Reid pushed himself up, and brought his right elbow up, slamming it right beside Aaron's nose. Aaron yelled again and Reid stood up, kicking Aaron in the side before seeing Kyle coming after him. Reid ducked one of his punches, and as Kyle tripped over Aaron's body, Reid wrapped his arms around Kyle's waist, dropped his shoulder, and flung Kyle over his back as he stood up. He looked over to Tyler and saw Seth laying on the ground, Tyler on one knee, lip bleeding, face bright pink from the cold and punches. "Aaron, I really think we're better at this. We were outnumbered, and we still beat you." Reid helped Tyler up and they both headed back towards the bar, leaving the three on the ground.

"Do you think Nikki's going to say anything?"

"As long as we did it off of his property and we didn't kill anyone, we're fine. They'll be moving soon enough. We didn't do enough damage to send them to the emergency room."

"Did you want to party after this?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Reid and Tyler went and cleaned themselves up, and grabbed their jackets to warm back up. They joined the table of couples, everyone seeming to have a good time.

"What happened to you guys?" Caleb asked.

"We had to teach Aaron a lesson," Reid replied, looking around for water. He didn't want Nikki to see him yet, since it was obvious he had just come back in from outside. He saw the drinking fountain and stood up, Tyler following him. _I must've had some adrenaline rush. I've never been this thirsty after a fight. _"You doing okay Ty?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Throw some alcohol in me and I won't feel a thing."

Reid chuckled. "You got a party in mind?"

"Tony from chem. is throwing it. I'm not quite sure how's he's getting away with it, but he is."

Reid nodded as he drank the water, relief flooding through him. When he was done he asked, "Do you think Aaron's going to try anything again?" Tyler caught the glimmer in his eye.

"No, not tonight. You surprised him and Kyle. They're not gonna try shit for awhile."

Tyler bent over to drink his water. "What about Seth? I saw that you got him pretty good."

Tyler wiped his mouth, smiling. "Heh, yeah I guess. He wasn't really hard though."

Reid smiled. "Want to hang around for a bit before we head out? Maybe we can be the respectful Brothers for a bit that Caleb's always trying to get us to be."

Tyler nodded and they headed back towards the table, a fun night at the tips of their fingers.

* * *

Well, there's the end to chapter 3. Not to bad, right? I personally like it a lot...was really pleased with the fight scene... So... what's gonna happen now? Any ideas? Ah well whatever...just as long as people are enjoying the story. And only excise for not updating sooner... I love partying too much. Plus i had to erase my hard drive, fix my computer back up, figure out internet...which i'm so fucking stoked about. OMG! My roommate wanted to kill me cus i wasn't speaking complete sentences last night XD DORK. Anywho. Hope you readers enjoyed and i'll be updating...sometime soon. (my version of soon...like...in a week or two...haha) :P


	4. No Control

**Chapter 4**

Reid yawned and opened his eyes, unable to recognize the scene around him as his panic flared out of control. His hands gripped his notebook tightly, his heart began beating wildly out of control, and he thought he was going to be sick. He instantly controlled his urge to vomit as his eyes came to focus on the classroom, it taking a little longer for Reid to realize he was in his sixth hour math class. He felt something grip his arm, causing his panic to spike and his control almost collapse.

"Mr. Larson, may I excuse myself and Mr. Garwin? I think he needs to see the nurse."

"I can see that Mr. Simms. Go on ahead, and hurry back."

Reid felt himself being lifted, and he concentrated on the stairs in front of him. Once steady his focus went back to not vomiting all over the classroom. He allowed himself to be guided by the stranger and the next thing he knew he was in the bathroom and in front of a toilet. He took in a breath and threw up, his head spinning worse than before.

"Reid? Can you hear me?" Reid nodded in response as he waited for his stomach to settle. "Are you going to be okay?" Reid shrugged. "Do you remember anything that has happened?" Reid shook his head, causing him to throw up again. "Do you know who I am?" Reid shook his head more slowly this time, feeling a little bit better. He began cleaning himself up as the voice said, "Oh shit."

He flushed the toilet and stood up, vision spinning. He took a couple of steps before the person grabbed onto him as he began losing his balance, and forced him to sit down against a wall. "Are you just now getting drunk?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked, his words slightly slurred together. He tried to focus on the person in front of him, but that only made him sicker, so he went back to watching the floor.

"Reid, what do you last remember?"

He tried to think, but his mind couldn't think past the last few minutes. "At this point, nothing." He tried looking up again. "Who are you?"

"Fuck. Reid you are so far gone it's not even funny. How am I supposed to get you outside?" Reid stayed silent as he felt himself sway back in forth. "I can't get a nurses note, because it's obvious you're drunk, and I can't take you back to class like this. Shit."

Reid just let his vision spin, after sometime the circles slowing down. He heard a bell ring, and heard the person take out something. In a moment, he was saying, "Caleb, we have a problem. I don't mean for this to go in any direction, but you need to come to the bathroom near Larson's room. Yeah, it's important. Okay."

Reid just sat there, not wanting to talk or think. His head and body hurt, and he wasn't sure why. If this guy was right about him being drunk, than he knew he shouldn't feel anything. But this time, he did. What happened? He looked up and saw a blurred figure walk away, and someone say, "What happened back in class?"

"The real Reid came back finally and he's shitfaced. He doesn't remember anything, and doesn't know who I am."

Reid looked back up and saw some people moving. He leaned his head against the wall, his neck hurting if he held his head up to much. He shut his eyes, trying to control his breathing. He felt someone come close next to him, and felt something placed on his neck. "Go 'way," he muttered, voice only a breath.

"His pulse is around one-thirty. Reid, can you open your eyes please as wide as you can?" Reid tried, and saw a really bright light. He turned away, confused and mad. "Well, his eyes still dilate so that's good, but if he were to have any sort of alcohol poisoning, it would've happened by now. Reid, this is Caleb. Can you hear me?"

Reid felt his breathing increase as he nodded. "You're going to be fine. You just need to take in some deep breaths and let them out slowly. I understand that you're confused right now, but as soon as you are able to calm down, we'll be able to explain where you are and what happened."

Reid nodded, still breathing hard and asking, "Hurt. Why am I hurting?" He could feel each exact point, and wanted to understand why.

"We kind of got into a fight last night," one of the voices above him said. Reid nodded, still not remembering, but at least he knew. He tried to calm his breathing down and heard a bell ring. Someone cussed, but no one moved. Within a few more minutes, he was able to slow his heartbeat down to eighty-four and focus on things for a short amount of time before everything was swaying. "Are you doing better?"

"Bell. You're late for something," he breathed out, feeling claustrophobic. He began moving, and felt someone help him up.

"Don't worry about it. If you can walk, we're going to leave this bathroom and take you home. Okay?"

Reid nodded, taking a few more calming breaths before opening his eyes and focusing on the floor. With a light support he was able to walk across the room, but too much movement made him want to throw up again. "Are you ready?" a different voice asked, and all he could do was nod.

After the door opened, he didn't remember much. He was being moved, and then had to go up something which caused him to fall and hit his head hard enough to make him black out. "Fuck! He's dead weight now!"

"No one's around and we can get him the rest of the way."

He was being moved again, but it wasn't by his own will. He was finally set down on something, and his pulse was taken again. "He's jumped back up to a hundred, but he'll calm down in a bit. Reid, what is hurting?"

Reid had to take a couple of breaths before he could respond. "Everything. Head. Head. Head."

"Which part of your head?"

"All. Brain, back, mostly side."

"Do you think you can go to sleep to see if your head is going to feel better?"

"Caleb, are you sure that's wise?"

"We're past the worst of everything. There's not much that can happen now. In reality, he should be sober, but since this is the real part, everything is still being held there from his original personality, so this really is all just a mental mind game he's putting himself through."

"What about when he fell down?"

"He should be fine. He didn't make it bleed or anything. It'll just be a headache for a few hours."

Reid felt himself drifting away, the voices putting him asleep. When he next woke, his mind was racing faster than any car he knew could. He felt his head spin as well as his stomach, causing him to run to the sink in the bathroom and cough.

"Reid, you okay?"

He spit into the porcelain, saying, "Sure." He waited a moment before rinsing out the sink and falling back into his bed. He looked at the clock and saw it was just after five in the morning. He groaned, feeling like his body weighed a ton. "What the fuck happened?"

"Are you back to normal?"

"What the fuck is normal anymore? Tyler, what the fuck happened to me? Why is it five and not eleven?"

"Ah...that would be a problem, wouldn't it? So...you basically don't remember the last thirty hours, do you?"

Reid froze. _Thirty hours? What the hell is this shit? _"Spit it out."

"You sure you don't want to wait until later? Caleb and Pogue can fill in as many different pieces as I can that might make more sense."

"Sure. Sorry man. Go back to sleep."

"Sorry, but don't worry. We'll straighten this out."

Reid was silent, and he heard Tyler drift back asleep. After some time, Reid stood up and grabbed shower supplies, and decided to go clean himself up as much as possible and try to straighten his head out. When he reached the shower, he turned the water as hot as he could stand it and leaned against the cool wall, his head in a rush. _What was Tyler talking about? Straighten what out? Have I really been that horrible? Or was I just the opposite—actually helping people out and showing how smart I am that everyone caught on? How can I be missing the last thirty hours of my life? If I was gone for that long, what made me come back? Apparently whatever this is has enough control to do whatever the fuck it wants, and I have none. _Reid's thoughts spun and his mind brought up an image of Melanie, which calmed him down significantly. _Melanie. I get to drive down and see her tonight. I'll have to buy her something on the way so I can make her grin when I ask her out. _His body calmed down and when he could breathe normally he went under the water, feeling slightly better.

When he was back in the room and dressed, he waited until seven to get Tyler up. He wanted to know at least an overall example of what happened. He vaguely remembered something about him in a bathroom with some people, and even then it felt like a dream. He pulled out his notebooks and turned on his flashlight, looking at his handwriting and for anything that was backwards. The handwriting was the same as ever, and he wasn't sure how he was going to get away with turning his homework in. He found a backwards section, turned it forward, and wasn't pleased with what he found. _Bye-bye Baby Boy, whom I dub as coy. There is no room for you here except for vast fear, and no more room for you to run and dodge the gun. You are running out of luck and whoops, you better learn to duck. _

_The first one was attacking Melanie, and now this one is attacking Tyler? How is that possible? What does he have to do with this? I thought this was just whatever was going on with me. _Reid was taken from his thoughts as Tyler's alarm went off. A smack later, there was silence and Tyler rolled back over to sleep. "Tyler, wake up." No response. "Tyler...come on...wake up Baby Boy."

"Shut it."

"How late was your night last night?" Tyler groaned in response. _He left me here alone while he went and partied? The bastard. _"Well, get up. I want to know what happened. And I have something for you too."

That got Tyler to look at him. "What?"

"Get up and I'll show you. It's...not pleasant." He laid back down on his bed as Tyler groaned and crawled out of bed, grabbing the first uniform he saw, glancing at Reid's uniform as well.

"How the fuck can you just be in our school uniform for two hours?"

"It's cold out here, and sadly the winter uniform can keep you warm."

"Yeah I noticed the heat difference from my bed," Tyler grumbled. When he was ready, he sat down across from Reid, Reid handing him the open notebook. Tyler read the simple lines, eyebrows scrunching together. "What's this supposed to mean?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I've written about attacking Melanie and you now..."

"So, by my calculations, you're going to have two more black outs so you can write poems about Caleb and Pogue?"

Reid couldn't help but grin as he took the notebook from Tyler's hand and smacked him across the arm with it. "Punk. How the hell am I supposed to know? You guys need to tell me what's happened since I've been gone."

"Well, then let's go to breakfast. Caleb and Pogue should already be there."

The two stood up and grabbed everything they needed for the day, Reid glancing out the window to the dreary morning. They left the dorm and walked across campus to the cafeteria, and saw Caleb and Pogue once they opened the doors. "Why do they get up so early for breakfast?"

Tyler only shrugged. "I don't know, but it makes it easy to guess where they are."

The two walked up, Caleb eying Reid. "What's wrong?" Reid asked.

"It's the real you this time, right?" Reid nodded. "Good. I was getting sick of the impostor."

Reid was about to say something, but Tyler said, "So, where do we start in explaining everything that happened? The last thing he remembers was kicking Aaron's ass basically."

Reid looked at the other two and saw them just looking at him. "Nothing else?"

"It's all black."

Caleb nodded, Tyler speaking and saying that they had gone to a party, and Reid had drank so much he should have had alcohol poisoning within the two hours. It was two when they went back to the dorms, Reid throwing up for about an hour before they went to bed. When they got up for school, Reid seemed perfectly fine and was giving Tyler a hard time about having a hangover. Reid had stayed silent through the first couple of periods, and at lunch time he had been nagging on how everyone at the school looked horrible in the uniforms, and that they should just burn the whole place down.

"You were serious about that too," Pogue said. "You had the whole thing planned out in five seconds."

"But you got mad when we were saying that it was a dumb idea and you were going to get caught, and threatened to burn us all up," Caleb said.

Reid just stared at them, forgetting that they were sitting in the cafeteria. Tyler continued with how Reid had 'woken up' in the middle of sixth hour and how he had to be rushed to the bathroom because of how sick he got.

"I guess I vaguely do remember that part. I thought that was a dream though."

"Well, that's how drunk you were at the party."

"Shit." Reid shook his head, not wanting to hear anymore. Caleb picked up this part, telling him how after they brought him back to the dorms, he had passed out for no more than two minutes before the impostor came back, asking what was wrong. They had then taken Reid to the Colony house and had a talk.

"If you're feeling sore at all, that will be my fault. The more personal the questions got, the more hostile you became, and you tried to knock me out and escape. The impostor you isn't as good of a fighter, and he hasn't figured out how to Use." Reid nodded, feeling sick. They hadn't gotten any answers out of the impostor, and Caleb knocked him out so they could drop him off at the dorm. Tyler picked up the rest of the night, saying how they worked on homework the entire time, and went to another party, but didn't drink as much as before.

Reid didn't know what to say after that. He simply leaned his head on the table, not caring to meet the eyes of his Brothers. "Fuck. I'm sorry guys. I didn't mean to cause all the problems again. Tyler's been added in my hit list, below Melanie."

"How Tyler?" Caleb asked, Reid pulling out his English notebook and flipping to the page. Caleb and Pogue read it as the ten minute warning bell rang and handed it back, both looking displeased. "We have to figure this thing out, fast. If interrogation doesn't work, something has to."

"I don't care what you guys do, just as long as it doesn't end in hospitalization and a lot of scars."

Caleb nodded and they all stood up, leaving together before separating to their classes. "See you in a bit," Caleb called, Reid giving a short wave. He dealt with his classes easier than he thought, and was able to stay in control of himself what he considered the whole day. He finished up his first full school day, and was walking back to the dorms with Tyler. Reid was going to head up to Concord as soon as he changed, and he hadn't felt this excited in a long time. _Something tells me that I'm not going to lose control this weekend, which would be good. I need this time. _

Reid packed and left, calling Melanie on the way. She was a little bit over excited for Reid coming down, but on the inside he was on the same level. He made the drive in less than an hour, and when he pulled up to her house, she was running out to him in a bright pink shirt and jeans, and he couldn't help but smile. She reached him and as he got out of his truck and gave her a hug before kissing her. He felt a spark between them, and knew that this was his girl, his love, his life. He knew he would do anything for her, no matter what happened or what the consequences were. "Ready for dinner?" he asked, and she smiled, going inside for a jacket. She came back out and they left, Reid going to a nicer restaurant that he knew of. If he was going to ask the girls of his dreams out, it had to be in a worthy place.

XX—X—X—XX

Reid could remember each and every little detail of the weekend. He didn't want to leave Melanie's arms, and he could tell it was the same with her. She said an enthusiastic yes when he asked her out, they went snowmobiling on Valentine's Day, followed by an expensive and tasty dinner, and a night that included a lot of skin and touching. Sunday included shopping and seeing the city for once during the day, and a simple fun dinner in a restaurant with a bar, which Melanie slightly took advantage of. "If I'm sober when you leave, then I'm going to start crying, and I won't be able to stop. I hope you won't hate me for this."

"Hun, I couldn't hate you in the slightest of bits. There's not a whole lot that can make me hate you. I know you're not going to run off with any guy, and I trust you with everything. You are the best girl that I've ever met."

Melanie leaned against him. "I'm glad. You're the best guy I've ever met, too."

They left soon afterward and watched a movie before he left. "I'll be back down this Friday. It's not even a whole week, so you'll be fine."

She nodded, but wouldn't let go of his arm. "I love you," she whispered, Reid smiling and kissing her forehead.

"I love you too. I have to go now, okay?" He watched her look up at him, eyes watery. He helped her stand up and they walked outside to his truck, where they had a one of the longest goodbyes that he could think of from anyone he knew. When he was able to get her to let go, he left, and it was a long and sad drive back to the dorms. He became thirsty part of the way back and looked for his water bottle, but didn't see it anywhere around him. He unbuckled his seat belt and reached behind him, found it, and was about to strap himself back in when he saw a bright light to his left, and next was aware that he wasn't sitting in the driver's seat anymore.

Reid caught his breath, not quite sure what happened. His head was throbbing madly, and when he opened his eyes, he had to blink blood out of them. He managed to put his hand on his dashboard to help push him up, but he was tangled in between the seats of his car, which caused him to use more movement than he wanted to get him back into the driver seat. He rested his head on his steering wheel, unable to move anymore. Confusing his senses, he heard the door open, and when he turned to see who it was, he was hit with something very hard on the side of his head. Before he could sprawl all over the other half of his truck a hand grabbed his jacket and he was dragged out of his truck and thrown onto the ground, Reid grunting in pain and slowly rolling over onto his back. He put an arm over his eyes and groaned.

"Well, well, well. If it ain't Mr. Reid Garwin. How's Melanie doing? Is she still the girl I knew her as?"

"What are you talking about? She's fine," Reid mumbled as he moved his arm and looked at the person, taking a moment for him to recognize that it was Jason, pointing a gun at Reid's chest.

"I beg to differ. You have taken her away from me, and I am going to get her back, one way or another. She's my girl! Mine!"

Reid stared past the flashlight and to Jason. He felt his heart begin to race and the cold became a far away feeling as his body fell into its defensive mode. If he stopped that bullet, Jason was going to get curious and know something was up. If he let the bullet hit him, then he was going to risk dying. Reid tried to move, but he heard the click of the hammer. He looked back towards Jason and the gun seemed more prominent. "What's your choice going to be? Are you going to try to escape and end up getting shot, or are you going to just lay here and die?"

Reid felt the blood beginning to freeze to his hair and skin and the winter air pressing down on him. "Jason, let me stand up and we can talk this over."

"Talk? You want to talk? Here, I'll give you my two cents right now!" Reid gasped as he saw Jason pull the trigger, but something in his power kicked in and the bullet swung wide, only grazing the side of his arm instead of his heart.

Reid heard the hammer click back, Reid rolling across the snow as Jason shot again. Reid made the bullet swing wide again, but he knew that it didn't look as suspicious. "Jason! We can be civil about this. All you have to do is put the gun away. I'll even say that you slid into me and it was an accident."

Jason aggressively shook his head, firing the last four bullets in quick succession. Reid dodged, two missing, one grazing his leg, the last one hitting his side, Reid falling into the snow pile his truck created. Reid caught his breath and held his side, hoping he wasn't bleeding badly and that no one would notice. He heard Jason running off to probably reload the gun, Reid quickly grabbing his power and weaving a small spell around his side wound until he was able to inspect it later. At least the spell would hold off most of the bleeding and pain for a small period of time. When Reid heard Jason's returning footsteps, he stood up, regaining his composure before ending this mini feud. _I'm going to have to Use. If I don't, I don't think there is going to be any way to get out of this._ Hiding behind his truck bed, Reid waited for Jason to come closer, the crunching of snow ruining any surprise. When he was close enough, Reid used to knock the gun away and tackled Jason to the ground, glaring at him when he stood up, now in possession of the gun.

"You should be lucky that I'm most likely going to leave you alive tonight," Reid said, staring at Jason in the eyes.

"How in the fuck did you do that?" Jason's eyes were flipping between the gun and Reid.

Reid kicked him hard in the side and stared into his eyes. "Because I don't want to be charged with murder, you better heed my word. Leave Melanie and I alone, or I will rain unexplainable terrors into your life."

By the look on Jason's face, he knew Reid meant every word. The fear though left his eyes quickly and was replaced with anger. "This isn't going to stop me, fucker. You took her away from me, and I will get her back."

Reid kicked him in the side again and then once more to prove his point. "Just try asshole."

When Reid was finished up with Jason, Jason was limping off towards wherever, while Reid began to feel the cold and pain. He went back into his truck and found his phone, calling Tyler. It took him three tries until Tyler answered, and even then he sounded pissed. "What the hell Reid? Are you aware of what time it is?"

"Actually, not really. I need a ride though. My truck's kind of crushed."

"What do you mean by crushed?" Reid was pleased when the sleepiness was disappearing from his best friends voice.

"I mean that it's almost on its side, pressed up against a fence. If you would be amazing enough to come pick me up, I'll show and explain it to you. I'm a half hour away." Reid gave Tyler directions, and Tyler gave Reid the number for the local towing place. Reid called the towing company next, and the driver who said would come over didn't sound too excited. Reid asked if the owner of the second car had run off, what was going to happen, and the guy sounded even less pleased.

Reid waited patiently next to his truck, smoking. He had been ecstatic when he found his pack in his heavy jacket, and now seemed an appropriate time to relax and attempt to warm up. Reid sat in his truck, jacket wrapped around his torso and legs, waiting and thinking. _Why the fuck is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this? It can't be all about Melanie, though she did explain to me why he's the jealous ex… Whatever. He's going to get his ass beat when he's not expecting it, and everything's going to be worth it. If I could, I'd take the opportunity. I'm sick of this pussy shit._

Reid shook his head, trying to disperse the overbearing thoughts. He would have his opportunity, but for the moment, all he could do was wait. About twenty minutes later Reid saw the familiar headlights of the hummer lighting up the roadway, Reid got out of his truck and began waving him over. When Tyler pulled up, he got out and simply stared at what was in front of him. "What the hell happened?"

Reid pulled out another cigarette, lighting it then saying, "Jealous ex thought it'd be funny to try to ram me off of the road and then shoot at me." Reid touched his side, feeling the warmth of the spell and the blood that wanted to expel.

Tyler only stared at him. "Shoot you? You didn't Use, did you?"

_You're beginning to sound like Caleb, Baby Boy... _"My powers kicked in on their own because I knew I was going to die otherwise. I may have scared him a little, but he doesn't understand anything that happened."

Tyler shook his head. "Reid, please don't fuck anything up, especially with this jealous ex. Though, on a more important matter, what are you going to do about the cars?"

"A tow truck is on the way for mine, and I don't know about Jason's car. His problem, not mine. I don't exactly know how I'm going to fix it though... Either it's going to take a lot of power or a lot of work, both of which I don't want to deal with."

Tyler nodded and Reid watched him walk over to the wreckage, though Reid knew he wasn't going to be able to see much. "There's blood splatters in here, and I can see where you guys wrestled around in the snow. How badly injured are you?"

_Never mind then on that last thought... _"Just some minor scrapes that I was hoping he'd accept, but he was a little bit brighter than I expected."

Reid finished his cigarette slowly as Tyler looked around, shaking his head in dismay when he crawled out of the truck. "This truly is a sad sight...though not as pathetic now that the tow truck is here."

Reid looked over his shoulder and flicked his cigarette into the snow, the driver soon getting out and not looking too happy. "Let's get this over with," Reid muttered walking up to the driver, Tyler not far behind.

* * *

Hello everyone. Sorry this came out so late for anyone who is enjoying this story. Anywho... :) It's here, and the story still has a ways to go. Hope this chapter is decent, and now that finals week is here, I'm excited because I'm done with school tomorrow! But I'll be out of a job for a month...hmmmm... Anyways. Hope you readers enjoyed and I'll try to have chapter 5 out a lot sooner XD


	5. Week of Darkness

**Chapter 5**

"What happened to you now?" Caleb asked when Reid walked up to him and Pogue the next morning, not even caring if they knew the truth. Reid was still pissed off at Jason for destroying his truck, and Reid knew he'd have to face his parents later that afternoon.

"I was shot at last night."

Pogue and Caleb stared at him, surprise evident in their faces. Reid smirked, glad he could still catch them off guard once in a while. "What do you mean, 'shot at?'" Pogue asked, eying the scrapes on Reid's face. He was content without the other two Brother's knowing about the wounds on his side and leg.

"Jealous ex. Thought it'd be fun to take me out of the picture."

"Did you Use on him?" Caleb asked, Reid glancing away.

"My body basically made me. It saw it as either defend myself or be killed, and I wasn't exactly willing to die."

Caleb nodded, knowing even better than Reid what the powers were capable of in a time of desperation. "Did you make it obvious that you have powers of some sort?" Pogue asked, still seeming unconvinced.

"I didn't try to. He knows I'm not simply human though, which makes me worried for Melanie."

"And not our safety? Do you know what will happen if he goes to the cops?" Pogue crossed his arms, straightening up to his full height.

Reid looked from Caleb to Tyler, and back to Pogue, exasperated. _Why is everyone sounding like Caleb lately? The more they keep this up, the less I'm going to talk to them unless necessary. _"He's not going to go to the cops because he tried to kill me, and I have marks to prove it. Never minding my totaled truck and his totaled car, which obviously ran into me on the road. I highly doubt the gun he used was even his. We're safe dude."

Pogue rolled his eyes, Caleb muttering "Don't worry about it."

Reid shook his head and they separated for class, Reid doing his best to stay awake. He had only managed a few hours of sleep the night before since they didn't get back to the dorms until four-thirty in the morning. Reid pulled out his notebook and prepared himself for his teacher's lectures, when a wave of dizziness ran through him. _No, this is not about to happen. I refuse. _He pulled out his phone, going to text Tyler when another wave passed through him and almost caused him to drop his phone. _Tyler...I need someone to know...although I guess it's pretty obvious now when I'm off. _He managed to send a message to Tyler letting him know he was probably about to fade out, when another wave ran through him, causing him to lay his head down on the desk.

"Mr. Garwin, there will be no more sleeping in my class," he heard his teacher say, though his hearing was fading fast.

"Yes sir," he responded, attempting to lift his head up when his vision went black and he was swept away with a final round of dizziness.

"I don't know what your problem is lately with people dude, but it's growing old," Reid heard, trying to place the voice. He opened his eyes, his heart jumping into his throat as he realized he was in a moving vehicle. He grabbed onto the door handle, ready to jump out as his adrenaline spiked. "Reid?" he heard, quickly looking over to his left.

He saw Tyler, and realized he was in the hummer. "What, what, what," he managed to get out, breathing hard as he looked around desperately, trying to figure out where he was.

"Reid? Is this the real you?" Reid couldn't calm his breathing down but he managed a curt nod, gripping the door handle even tighter. "Don't be jumping out of the car now. We're on our way to your parent's house so you can explain how you totaled your truck. Calm down." Reid managed to give another nod and focus on his breathing.

_It's all right, I'm only going to my parents house. Worry about them instead. Figure this shit out later. _"When could you guys tell?" he managed to get out, still gripping the door handle tight.

"Right after your text. Read them. I'm sure they're pretty amusing because you kind of chewed me out when I asked if it was because you didn't get much sleep last night."

"Fuck..." Reid muttered, shaking his head and closing his eyes. "Sorry. What else went wrong today?"

Tyler shrugged and continued to watch the road in front of him. Reid looked around and noticed they had about five more minutes until they reached Reid's house. "You chewed out Pogue big time, and even though he knows it wasn't the real you, he may not talk to you for a day or two, and you managed to sass Caleb to the point where he almost hit you."

"Fuck. Fuck!" Reid yelled, slamming his fist into the window. "I can't believe this shit is happening. I don't even know why or how, and there's nothing I can do about it. And now I get to explain to my parents what happened and hope they can buy me a new truck."

"It'll be fine. You already talked to them on the phone. At least your counterpart is good at sweet-talking people."

"What?"

"Yeah. Your parents aren't upset though. Well, not horribly at least. They were more nervous that this guy is going to actually kill you, though your powers aren't about to allow it."

"All right..." Reid looked at the time and saw it was almost four o'clock. "And I suppose you haven't had a chance to look through my notebooks?"

"You wouldn't allow me. So, I'm assuming there's something else written in there that you may want to check out after this."

Reid groaned and the two sat in silence until they pulled up to Reid's house. Once the gates opened, Reid saw his family's German Sheppard's run up to the hummer, barking excitedly. When Reid got out of the hummer, the dogs ran up to him, wagging their tails while keeping an eye on Tyler. "Relax boys, it's only Tyler. You know him." Tyler walked around, and then the two walked up to the house, Reid not wanting to deal with his parents.

When they walked in, the dogs sat on the front porch to keep a look out, while Reid went to look for his parents. He found them in the office, both on their own computers most likely doing things for their work. "Afternoon boys," Reid's mother said, looking up with a smile.

"Are you here to explain about your truck?" his father asked, looking expectantly at Reid.

"Yeah, I am..." Reid closed his eyes, sighed, and hoped this would end well. Opening his eyes, he said, "Last night I was coming back from a friend's house, and this guy that they know happens to hate me with a burning passion. He apparently knows the way that I head home and purposefully crashed into me to try to hurt me."

"What is he going to do about his car?" his mother asked, not looking angry at all. Reid glanced at his father and saw that he too wasn't angry.

"It was just as totaled as my truck, if not worse. He just up and left after attempting to threaten me."

"Did you fight?" his father asked, peering at him.

"No, we didn't. I attempted to talk it out with him, but he just up and left."

"Are you going to Use to fix your truck?" his father asked, looking slightly doubtful now, Reid knowing he didn't buy the last part of the story, especially when he eyed the scrapes on Reid's face.

"I really don't want to. I'd prefer to have it professionally fixed with my will money, or another truck in general. I know it's a hassle and complete bullshit," Reid ignored the glares he received from his parents for cussing, "but he's not going to pay for the truck and not going to tell anything to the police. He's kind of an asshole."

"Language!" his mother said, as his father muttered, "Figures."

The rest of the conversation consisted of alternatives that they could try for the truck, but Reid knew that overall he'd have to buy a new one, and even then he didn't know if he wanted the same type of truck or another kind. When he and Tyler were heading back to the dorms, he remained silent, not caring to converse. When they were closer to the dorms, Tyler asked, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, just pissed about the whole truck ordeal."

Reid continued staring out the window, getting out of the hummer when Tyler reached the dorms. "Are you sure you're all right?" Tyler asked once they reached the buildings, Reid rolling his eyes.

"Yes, I'm fine. I haven't switched or anything. I'm just pissed about a lot of things right now, and I mainly want to see my notebook to see what else in school I've managed to miss out on." _And who I probably threatened next..._

"Right... Have you decided what kind of truck you want to get?"

"No. It's probably not going to be as decent either since the nice one they bought me now is royally screwed on the left and right side."

Tyler opened the door to their room, Reid looking around and spotting his backpack. "It'll be fine. Just...think of revenge or something."

"Revenge would be beating the shit out of his car, but apparently that's not going to happen..." Reid opened his backpack and pulled out his notebooks, flipping through them, his anger rising the more he saw the horrible handwriting. Finally in his math notebook he found what he was looking for. _Run, run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, the eldest man. I'm here, I'm there, I'm winning just about everywhere, making you go round and round, chasing your tail, only wait until you wail. Things may seem peachy keen, but your fears, your fears; they are what tie you to life, Mr. Danvers._

When Reid finished rewriting and rereading the poem, he threw the notebook across the room, slamming it into the door. "God dammit!" he yelled, slamming his fist sideways into the wall behind him.

"What did you find?" Tyler asked, looking cautious.

"I don't think you want to know. Apparently this whole thing is a game that we're going to lose. Or at least that's what my counterpart thinks. Fuck. I need to show Caleb this..."

Reid got off of the bed and walked over, picking up the notebook. He opened the door, hearing Tyler quickly get off of his bed to follow suit. "Dude, I don't know if this is wise. Pogue's pretty pissed at you right now... Shouldn't you call him or something?"

"Walking is just as fast as calling. And I want to see how angry Pogue is at me. He generally is all bark and no bite."

"I don't know about this, Reid."

Ignoring Tyler, Reid soon was soon knocking on the door, Pogue answering a few seconds later. "What the fuck do you want?"

"Not you. I need to see Caleb."

"And what makes you think he's here?"

"Because he lives here and won't go back to his parent's until later tonight."

"Sorry pretty boy, but you're out of luck."

Reid stared at Pogue, doing his best to keep his fist at his side. "Fine, I'll just call him. Fuck you too."

Reid was beginning to turn around when he suddenly felt pain in the left side of his face. He next knew he was on the ground, Tyler holding Pogue back from hitting Reid again. "Dude, calm down, it's all right."

"Fucking faggot doesn't need to be showing his face around here with that attitude! I'm sick of this bullshit."

"It's the real Reid though this time. I didn't exactly tell him what happened today at lunch, so he walked into this blind. Calm down."

Reid's vision wavered and he grabbed the notebook from the ground, holding it up. "Give this to Caleb," he said, having a hard time speaking due to the pain in his face and mind. "There's a poem for him."

Reid's arm that was holding him up gave out as Pogue grabbed it, Tyler going to his side. "I'm sorry about hitting you Reid... Tyler should have given you the real reason why I'm pissed at you...or, I guess, the other you..."

"No worries. You can punch the guy when he comes out...which may be soon..." Reid cringed as his vision wavered again, his thoughts beginning to become frantic. _No, no, no...this can't be happening...again. Twice, again, in one day. What the hell is going to stop this? What possibly can stop this? _"Get me to Caleb's," Reid muttered, his head pounding as he barely felt Tyler lifting him up, Pogue helping him as well. "Fuck..." Reid muttered as his breathing became harder and his body became heavier. He felt like he was sliding out of Tyler and Pogue's hold, crashing into the ground, his mind no better as it gave up the fight.

"Fifty-two," Reid said, looking at his sixth-hour math professor, Mr. Larson. Reid quickly glanced around, his voice faltering on the end of two.

Mr. Larson raised an eyebrow, before slowly saying, "That is correct, Mr. Garwin." He turned back to the class, Reid gripping onto the sides of his chair to keep himself from visibly shaking. He swiftly looked around, reassuring himself that he was really in his math class. He noticed though that Tyler wasn't sitting next to him, or even in the classroom, and Pogue and Caleb were sitting farther away, listening to Mr. Larson. Reid looked down at the table in front of him, and froze when he saw math worksheets in front of him with relatively nice handwriting across the page. _What? How? Long? How long have I been out? What's going on? _Reid looked back at Caleb and Pogue, doing his best to keep the fear from showing. They were still not looking in his direction, which caused him to wonder what happened now. _Caleb... Pogue... Where's Baby Boy? What's happened? Look at me!_

Reid was able to calm down by the end of the period and let go of his chair when the bell rang. He went to the door as soon as he could, waiting for Caleb and Pogue. He tried his best to stay the calm, collected Reid that everyone knew, but he couldn't stop his hands from twitching every few seconds. He saw Caleb and Pogue walk out of the door, but turned in the opposite direction. _What? Where are you going? _Reid quickly cut through the students, soon grabbing onto Caleb's shoulder.

"Caleb! Seventh hour is in the opposite direction."

Reid looked up at Caleb, eyes widening when Caleb grabbed his wrist tightly and stared Reid down, his iris's rimmed with the red of the power. "What makes you think you have the right to talk to me, or even _touch _me?"

"Caleb, please, what's going on? It's me, Reid, your Brother."

"What are you going to do this time to convince me it's truly you? You've used up every other clever option." The red rim flashed black, Caleb's grip tightening on Reid's wrist. "I've warned and I've threatened you, but you've refused to listen, only harming those that you love. I've held back for too long, _Reid._"

Caleb's eyes slowly began turning black, his grip becoming even worse. Reid held in a cry of pain, and desperately looked to Pogue. Pogue wasn't even watching though; he was looking around, ensuring that everyone was carrying on with their day and not paying attention to the side of the hall. Reid looked back to Caleb, knowing he didn't have much longer before he broke down in front of the school "Caleb, please, it's me. I don't know what's going on or what's happened. Where's Tyler? Why is he not here with us? He'd be able to tell that I'm here now. Caleb, please, what's going on?"

Caleb continued to stare him down, Reid trying not to show how much Caleb was truly hurting him. "Your words are the same as ever. Are you going to snap and threaten me now with everyone's life again?" Caleb tightened the grip, Reid yelling out in pain, his arm clearly shaking now. "Are you being brave for once? Are you that determined to destroy each of us?"

Reid yelled out once more, feeling as if his wrist was going to break. "Please, Caleb, for the sake of our sanity, let go. If you follow through with this, you're going to regret it when you see it's me. Please, Caleb, stop. We're in school. You won't be able to explain it." Reid's whole body was shaking, Caleb continuing to stare down at him. A flash of pain erupted in Reid's wrist, spreading quickly throughout his arm and chest. He cried out, collapsing as Caleb let go of his wrist. Caleb smirked, Pogue looking at him as well.

"This is your last warning, Reid." Reid blinked his eyes, realizing he was still standing up, Caleb's eyes were partial black, and the grip on his wrist was a little bit more tolerable. "If you even look at me while Tyler is gone, that is what will happen. You can see Pogue isn't going to stop me, and the only difference is that it will be someplace a little more subtle. Understood?"

Reid nodded slowly, trying to catch his breath. The final bell rang, Caleb and Pogue leaving for class. Reid quickly turned in the opposite direction and headed for the school exit. He needed some place alone and quiet where he could freak out. As Reid went towards the edge of the yards, he quickly thought about Caleb's actions and his questions. _What the hell is going on? Tyler, please, where are you? You'll believe me. You'll know it's me. Why is Caleb so mad? Where did he learn to do that? _Reid slid down a tree and ran his hands through his hair, crying out "Fuck. What the _fuck_?"

He sat on the ground, trying to get his body to stop shaking. He decided to pull out his phone and look at the date, praying it was only Tuesday, so he hadn't even been out for a day. When he saw that it was really Friday, whatever progress he had made on calming himself down was destroyed. _No wonder they didn't believe me. Fuck. _Reid looked through his text messages, seeing a lot of arguments between him and Caleb, and another one with Tyler. He saw that he had missed a lot of calls from Melanie, and sent her a message asking if she still wanted to hang out this weekend. _Hopefully... I need to get away from all of this and try to get myself back together before I can get everything sorted out._

Reid stood up and grabbed his backpack, heading to the dorms to hide in his room. He was going to avoid his brothers and look through his notes, and simply go from there. Once he was situated on his bed and ready to see what was in his notebooks, within the first few pages he wasn't sure if he could continue on looking. Backwards words were everywhere, jumbled up and in order, lines of hate and anger towards the Brothers lined the margins, and small drawings of destruction were placed in any extra space. Reid spent the next three hours translating all of the backwards letters, coming up with two poems and a lot of threats towards his friends.

"What am I going to do?" He muttered aloud, looking at his phone and seeing that Melanie still hadn't replied. _Maybe Melanie will answer and calm me down... _Despite his current situation and how he felt, the thought of Melanie brought a childish smile to his face, and he felt a surge of loneliness that was so strong, even if Melanie didn't answer he wanted to go down anyways and at least see her face. He picked up his phone, held his breath, and called his love, each ring causing his heart to beat faster. When she didn't answer, he left a voicemail, his voice shaky and crushed as he spoke.

_Tyler, where the hell are you? Shouldn't you be back yet? I don't want to be here alone anymore... _"Shit! My truck! How the hell can I drive to Concord if I don't have a truck?" Reid scrambled and looked at his key chain, seeing a different black key that he wasn't used to seeing. _Shit...I apparently chose something new. Fuck. _Reid got off of his bed and quickly grabbed his things, running out to the parking lot.

Reid looked at the key again, and found the Dodge symbol on the back. _Apparently I thought a new company was in order... _Reid grabbed the automatic unlock and began looking around the parking lot, waiting for an alarm. In the seventh row he found his truck, and was stunned at what he saw. A dark green Dodge Ram that was slightly lifted with bigger tires met his sight, and he couldn't stop the excitement from coursing its way through him. He was disgusted but in awe at the same time. He felt his phone vibrate and quickly grabbed it, an uncontrollable wave of exhilaration flowing through him. "Hello?"

"You called?"

Melanie's serene voice met his ears, Reid imagining her beauty and touch, almost losing his train of thought."Y-yeah. I was wondering if you still wanted to meet up this weekend?"

"After you've ignored me all week long?"

Reid looked back at his new truck and began walking to the dorms. "Please, Melanie, I didn't mean to. I haven't been myself all week long and I'm trying to figure everything out. I need to see you."

Melanie was quiet as Reid took control over the strength of his voice. "I need to see you too," Melanie whispered. "Reid, things have gotten all kinds of weird over here, and that's the only reason why I think you should stay up there. But, I need to see you."

"Let me come down. We'll be safer in Concord than up here. I can protect you at least at your home."

"All right... Please hurry."

Reid couldn't help the grin of relief that overcame his face. "Anything for you, babe. I'll see you within an hour."

"Okay! Bye!"

"Bye." Reid ran the rest of the way, quickly changing and packing, briefly worried about a shower until he realized his shower things were still damp. He quickly went back outside and stopped when he came up to his truck. Mentally double checking he had everything, he unlocked the door. _Good, good...now to test this truck. Apparently mom and dad let me get used... Let's see if this thing is worth it. _Slightly nervous, Reid got in and looked around, seeing everything was set up the way he liked it. Soon he was on his way to Concord, and wasn't about to allow anything to stop him.

* * *

Hey everyone! I'm alive and...well, i suppose. Sorry the update took so long. I got lost in school and work and life and have been neglecting this story. Anywho... I don't ever normally do this, but i would like to give a special appreciation to Amy and Jay who were kind enough to remind me of my account and this specific story :) I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and hey, if i remember, and anyone reviews soon, i suppose i can try to upload the next chapter cus it's only gonna get better from here :) Have a good time everyone! And my apologies once again :P


	6. Time for a Talk

**Chapter 6**

Reid received a call from Tyler Sunday night, and almost had a panic attack. "Hello?"

"Reid? Are you at the dorms right now?"

Reid stood up, pacing Melanie's bedroom as she sat on her bed, concern on her face. He lost sight of the room as he focused only on his best friend. "No, I, I'm in Concord. Please, Tyler, what's going on? Where have you been? Talk to me. You're my best friend..."

"Reid, calm down. Pogue and Caleb told me about what happened, which is why I called you. When are you coming back up tonight?"

Reid looked at the clock, and saw it was almost eight. "I, I'm not sure. Do you want me there now? Will you explain what's going on, or, what has happened?"

"Yeah, we'll explain as soon as you get back Come to the colony house and we'll be waiting."

"Okay, I'll try not to switch, because I need to know. Where have you been though? I was scared to call you..."

"I've been in the hospital and I was released this morning. Like I said, we'll explain everything when you get back down here."

"Yeah, right. Ah, I'll try to see you soon."

Reid looked at Melanie as Tyler said bye, and didn't know what to do. He remembered the last two days completely because of this girl, but he needed answers before he was able to solve the current situation. Melanie looked up at him expectantly, a pout beginning to form. "You have to leave, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do." He came back to her and closed his eyes, grabbing her hands in his as he leaned his forehead against hers. "I'm able to get the answers that I need, and I'm sorry, but I have to see my friends."

Tears formed in her eyes, but she attempted to blink them away. "Okay. But, talk to me this week, all right?"

"Sure thing, babe." Reid kissed her forehead and met her lips next, holding onto the kiss longer than he knew he should have, but she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, gently pulling him down on top of her. "I have to go," he soon whispered across her lips, simply resting there.

"I know. I'm sorry. Go on. Just...I love you."

Reid grinned and pressed his lips against hers once more. "I love you too. Have a good night, Melanie."

She kissed him one last time, before he quickly grabbed his things and left, racing to Caleb's as fast as he dared. No snow, cops, or ex-boyfriends were going to stop him tonight. When he finally drove up to the colony house, he was overcome by nerves, but knew this was his last chance. Too soon was he walking into the basement and carefully looking at his Brothers, hoping they weren't going to attack him.

"So, you say this is the real you?" Caleb asked, standing up, Reid noticing the wooden baseball bat that was lying next to him.

Reid froze and looked at the three of them, all of them watching him. "Yes, now, Caleb, what's the bat for?"

"You told us that as long as nothing required hospitalization or gave you scars, you didn't care what happened to you," Tyler said. "You've fallen into our trap, Reid, and I'm sorry, but we're not going to take your bullshit anymore."

"Baby Boy, please, this is me, Reid. Ask me about my truck? When the fuck did I get that? And my notes! I translated my notes. Go look at them and see the handwriting difference. Please, Tyler, believe me."

Reid took a step back, his power simmering on the edge. "What did you do with Kate?" Pogue asked, standing up as Caleb leaned to grab the bat.

"Kate? What? Huh?"

"What did you do with Sarah?" Caleb asked, lifting the bat up and looking at it.

Reid took another step back and ran into a barrier that blocked him from the stairs. He saw Caleb and Pogue's black eyes, and felt his knees give out. He was too weak for this. His birthday was in a few more days, but he didn't even know if he'd even make it that long. "Don't, don't do this..." Reid said, voice shaking.

"What did you do with the girls?" Caleb asked, Reid only shaking his head. Pogue whipped him with the power, Reid flying across the room and crashing into the wall. "I'm going to ask you again, Reid. What did you do with Kate and Sarah?" Reid only shook his head, beginning to lift himself off of the ground when another wave crashed over him, pressing him against the ground.

"We found your notes, Reid," Tyler said, standing up, Reid taking a closer look at him. He saw that Tyler's skin was paler than normal, and a large bruise was on the side of his face. He took a step closer to Reid, Reid unknowing how to react. "We saw what you wrote. 'They've disappeared, any last words?' Your poem about Pogue and how the good ones will always be the first to go? The timing is perfect, Reid."

Reid's mind closed as he saw the bat swing at his body, contacting with his side. He screamed, his powers flaring up and defending him from the next blow with the bat. "I thought you were a tough guy, Reid. Why are you screaming?" Pogue asked, amusement thick in his voice.

Someone swiped their power across him though, dismantling Reid's shield, soon another wave of power coming across him. He was outnumbered, again, and this time it was his own Brothers. He felt the tears slide across his face as his power began weakening, Reid feeling more and more hits. If they didn't let up soon, he was going to have a few broken ribs.

Reid felt himself moved and placed in a sitting position, his world becoming dark as he tried to look around to see what was happening now, the pain blurring his concentration. "Where are the girls?"

Reid shook his head, tears streaming out once more. "I don't know... Please, believe me."

Reid felt the bat placed on his shoulder, hearing Tyler say, "Caleb, I think that's going to be a bad idea. I really think we made a mistake here."

"Tyler, do you not remember what this fucker did to you last time we were all down here? Look at your face for proof! If anything, you should be the one swinging the bat," Pogue said, Reid unable to keep his eyes open.

"I, I'm not so sure anymore. Don't you think he would've given up? He generally is threatening us and that has yet to happen. Guys, I think we've made a mistake."

"You have," Reid muttered, a wave of power knocking him across the head.

"Shut it. You have no room to speak here."

Reid closed his eyes, his shoulders slumping in defeat. These were not his brothers anymore, and he didn't know if they ever would be again. Because of accident and stupidity, this was the last of the covenant. "And if it is the real Reid, how will we know? Handwriting doesn't work anymore, as well as the powers. He knows the same things Reid knows and is just as sarcastic and mean," Caleb said.

Silence enveloped the room, Tyler soon asking, "Reid, when I bought my hummer, what did you tell me?"

Reid attempted to look at Tyler, but his head fell back down, leaning on his chest. He could barely think through the fog and didn't even know if he could speak. He could scarcely remember the time and let the words come. "That you," he began, his voice weak and cracking. "You were overcompensating, but," Reid paused, his body wanting to shut down. "But, you would miraculously still get the ladies."

Reid let out a weak cough, his breathing hard. "Fuck," he barely heard Tyler breath out, and let out a weak cry of relief.

"Surprise," Reid said, managing to look up and at his Brothers, the smile he attempted to form failing as his vision darkened and his body felt heavier than normal. "Shit," he whispered, a wave of pain rolling through him. He prayed for the pain to knock him out, but knew at the back of his mind that his pain tolerance was too high and that it would still be a bit before he passed out, if the pain didn't get worse.

Another wave caused his body to twitch, the simple act relighting the areas that were hit with the bat. He noticed there were voices around, but he couldn't understand what they were saying. _Please, please let tomorrow go smoothly. Even if I only sleep, don't let anything happen._ He wanted to know what happened still. Even though he knew he wouldn't be able to trust any of them again, he wanted to at least know what happened to get him into this predicament.

Another wave of pain rolled through him, and he barely caught Tyler's frantic voice. _Maybe...maybe I can trust Baby Boy still. More so than the others at least._ Another wave of pain flew through him, Reid letting out a small cry as pain, slowly growing louder as he realized he was being moved somewhere. _Stop! Stop! Put me back down! _He yelled, unable to voice his thoughts as he felt his mind become detached from his body. He felt a black pressure around him as he lost track of everything, allowing the blanket to take him from his fears.

When Reid next woke, it was still dark out, but he was able to think a little more clearly. He observed his surroundings and realized he was in his familiar dorm bed, and if he moved, he had to be careful. Nothing was in a cast, but he could feel wraps around certain parts of his body. He slowly opened his eyes, all of the lights off. "Tyler?" he asked, not wanting to move much more.

"Reid?" he heard from the other bed.

"Yeah... Is everything okay now?"

He heard Tyler move and come closer. "At the moment, everything is okay. Caleb was able to bandage you up because he knows how much you hate the hospital, and he's been studying a lot of med stuff lately so he knew what to do."

"Good... That's good."

"Go ahead and rest some more. You should be able to be up and moving tomorrow."

"Tomorrow..."

"Tuesday. You've only been unconscious for a day and a half. It's...a little past 1 in the morning, so I suppose Tuesday is more accurately today."

"Fuck..." Reid turned his head to the other side, wanting to move into a more comfortable position.

"I'll see how you are in the morning. Good night."

Reid was already being swept away into his blanket of sleep, quite content with sleep more than anything at the moment. He all too quickly heard the alarm going off, and pressed the snooze button before Tyler, only to soon have Tyler gently shaking him, asking if he was all right. "Gonna sleep," Reid said, gently rolling over and falling back asleep. When he was next aware of things, Reid took in the silence and simply laid on his bed and continued to let his body rest. He knew though that he'd be feeling antsy soon, as much pain as he knew he was going to be when he began moving. Finally, Mother Nature called and Reid had no choice. _Fuck. Let's get this over with. _

Reid carefully moved and sat up, looking at the bandages that covered his arms and chest. They were clean, which made him feel a little better. He slowly stood up, testing his balance and strength, and quickly grabbed a pair of clothes and his shower supplies, deciding he probably needed to shower as well.

When Reid left the bathrooms, he groaned at the length of the walk back to the dorm room. He had realized how hurt he was, and didn't know how he'd face his Brothers after doing this to him. Reid slowly walked back to the room, thinking. He didn't want his counterpart to come out again anytime soon, especially after what he missed in the last week, and wanted to know what happened, and if Sarah and Kate had been found. He assumed they had, since Caleb and Pogue wouldn't let their girlfriends go missing for too long. Reid slowly opened the door to the room, and saw that Tyler was already in there, which caused him to stay where he was in the door frame. _I couldn't have been gone that long, have I? No one was in the halls and there was no noise anywhere..._

"Where's everyone else?"

Tyler looked at Reid, saying, "Everyone as in who?"

"The dorms. It's really silent."

"That's because there's still one more period left at school. I ditched out to see if you were all right and if you wanted to talk."

Reid nodded and shut the door, heading to his closet to toss his excess items in. He sat on his bed across from Tyler, looking at his face. "What did I do to your face?"

Tyler turned his face slightly so Reid couldn't see the bruise. "It happened last week. I was in the hospital for a few days because the doctor's couldn't get the swelling to go down."

"That doesn't answer my question though."

Tyler looked at him, saying, "I think I need to tell you all that you've done to piss everyone off, starting with what you told Pogue in order to make him punch you across the face. That is the last you remember, right?" Reid nodded, Tyler shaking his head. "You were gone for so long it became hard to tell if you had ever switched back. I thought you had on some occasions, but I would figure out that it wasn't really you, and that the other one was simply becoming better at mimicking your personality.

"What pissed Pogue off so well is that you were talking to him about Kate and how he was basically using her for pleasure, and how you strongly believed she was sleeping around. Caleb stepped in and told you to lay off, and you offhandedly said that you wouldn't mind sleeping with either of their girlfriends. From there it only escalated to name calling, threats, and such."

Reid ignored the shiver that ran down his spine. Sarah was more of Reid's type, but he didn't think he'd ever be able to touch her after she's gone out with Caleb. And Kate... Reid didn't care much for the girl. "And you knew this was a lie?"

"Yeah, but Caleb and Pogue both became rather hostile after that and I had to keep them from pummeling your face in. After you passed out when Pogue punched you, the other one came out soon and shit hit the fan from there. This last week you haven't been around much, and in classes, you've refused to acknowledge any of us. Tuesday night you went out partying, and came into class on Wednesday still drunk, so Caleb decided to have a talk with you, only you ended up threatening him again and brought Sarah into it.

"I didn't see you after that, and on Thursday we grabbed you at the end of seventh hour and took you to the colony house, and you began panicking there once we started questioning you. The reaction you had when you saw the bat? That was the same reaction the other you had, hence why Caleb and Pogue weren't sure. We threatened you, tried small bits of power, but nothing was working. When you finally had enough, you Used to grab the bat and launched it at my face. You shoved me over into the flames of the candles and tried to burn me with them, but the other you can't control your powers very easily."

"Shit..." Reid looked at his hands and dropped his head against his chest. "There's so many things that I missed and I know you're leaving out, but I don't want to hear anymore. I understand why Caleb and Pogue were threatening me if I so much as looked at them, but... Was it really that necessary to beat the shit out of me?"

Tyler looked away, letting out a sigh. "I wasn't for it. Through and through, you're my best friend. I honestly didn't Use on you at all, but I watched all of it, trying to find out if it was the real you or not. Caleb wasn't lying, either, about how we can't do anything anymore. The handwriting is damn near identical, he can Use, though not as well as you, and the other one is figuring out your personality, though his is more cruel and honest while you are more humorous and forgiving."

"Fuck. Why did the other side simply give up after holding me hostage for a week?"

Reid meant it as a rhetorical question, but Tyler replied with, "Well, we asked him how he was taking control, and he refused to admit anything. He said nothing was wrong and this was really you."

"And there's no pattern to anything about this situation to predict off of. And there's no way I can get the proper amount of sleep to not be tired all the time..." Reid sighed and covered his face with his hands, asking, "You know I don't trust any of you anymore, right? Maybe you, but overall to me, the Covenant is dead."

"Yeah, I thought as much," Tyler said, voice sounding lost. "And I figure that you're not going to ignore the whole Kate and Sarah questioning, huh?"

Reid barely looked up, curiosity and caution clouding his mind. "Why? Have you guys found them?"

"Yeah, we did...that night. They had gone to Concord to go do things, and just didn't tell the guys."

"That's...really weird though. Sarah tells Caleb _everything._ How can she simply forget?"

Reid watched Tyler shake his head. "I don't know. They haven't been around much either since Sunday, but we all haven't exactly been acting normal lately."

Reid made a noise and simply sat there, mulling over what Tyler had told him. "I don't have to see Caleb and Pogue anytime soon, right?"

"Until we have class tomorrow, nope."

"Good." Reid turned away and grabbed his backpack, deciding to look through his notes and attempt to catch up on what _he _was behind in. Tyler jumped on his computer, playing games and answering any questions that Reid had. Reid was still weary of him, but Tyler might as well have been his blood brother. _This will roll over...eventually. I still don't know if I can forgive Caleb and Pogue though. I'm nervous to be around them since they've been physically and mentally aggressive towards me. What's to say the next time they will actually be halfway decent? All I have to do is have the other me come out, and then everything is destroyed. Again. And I'm going to be put through this situation. Again._

Reid stayed in the room when Tyler left for dinner, and was beginning to feel like he was accomplishing something when Tyler came back, looking lost in thought as he shut the door. Reid looked up, cautiously asking what was wrong.

"Something's wrong... I don't know what exactly, but Caleb and Pogue were acting a bit aggressive still at dinner when I told them that you were up and able to move. I know you won't mind, but I'm going to suggest that you avoid them as much as possible for the rest of the week."

Reid nodded, knowing that would be pretty easy and what he was originally planning on doing anyway. He finished the rest of the night smoothly, Tyler playing music from his laptop as he was drawn into his game. When they were both tired, Reid was worried that he wouldn't wake up when he was supposed to. "You guys still haven't figured out a way to draw me out, have you?"

Tyler looked at him as he got underneath his sheets. "No, otherwise Sunday would've never happened. We're just as confused as you are."

"All right. Sorry if I turn into the asshole again. Hopefully I can figure out how to keep it from happening."

Tyler nodded and they said good night, Reid closing his eyes and slowly falling back into the all too familiar slumber that had encased his mind and body lately.

* * *

Heyo! Sorry this is out a bit later than i wanted, but at least it's better than two months, right? :P anywho... hope anyone enjoyed this chapter and dont worry, the story still has a little ways to go. It'll continue to get better :) I'm also working on a tyler fanfic that kinda ties into Darkness, with some alterations. So, it's hella mean if anyone is also interested in that. Maybe i can send the first chapter to anyone who's interested? Lemme know XD all righty then. hope y'all have a good day and i'm gonna continue enjoying the rest of my spring break. I'll try to have another chapter out by the end of the week since it's on my to-do list.


	7. A Settling Storm

**Chapter 7**

Reid heard the alarm clock ring, and pressed the snooze button for Tyler, doing his best to begin waking up. He wasn't about to allow any exhaustion overcome him and take him away for god knew how long. Plus, his birthday was in two days, and he definitely didn't want his counterpart to be experiencing it instead of him. When Reid decided he wasn't going to slip off in the near future, he got out of bed and ready for school, looking over his notes when Tyler finally decided to get up. Both slowly walked to the school, Reid feeling out of place and a bit jumpy that Caleb and Pogue were going to attack him at every corner.

"Are you okay?" Tyler finally asked as they came close to Reid's first hour class.

Reid looked around the hallway once more, trying to bite off his edge of paranoia. "I suppose..."

"Then quit looking around you. Everything is fine, I swear. Pogue and Caleb aren't going to attack you when I'm here. Promise."

"Even though I threw a bat at your face and tried to burn you?"

"Like I said, you're my brother through and through. I'll see you next hour though. All right?"

Reid nodded and entered the classroom, feeling as if everyone was watching him. The wraps were hidden underneath the uniform and he did his best to have a steady walk. Even as paranoid as Reid was, the first part of the day went as smoothly as he could hope for, but when he had a class with Caleb and Pogue before lunch, he could feel them subtly watching his every move, Tyler telling him to calm down more than once. At lunch Reid gave the guys a wide breadth, choosing to sit by himself while Tyler figured out how hostile Caleb and Pogue still were.

Finally, the end of the day came and after dealing with two more periods with Caleb and Pogue, Reid was out of the classroom buildings before anyone else, Tyler running to catch up with him. "Reid, calm down, everything is all right."

"What does that mean now?"

Reid glanced over and saw that Tyler looked to be thinking over what he was going to say. "Basically, Caleb and Pogue are nervous for your birthday this Friday. They don't know what's going to happen afterward, and they don't want to resort to more violence, though they will if the opportunity arises when they see need. By seeing you in public today, I think they realized how bad we fucked up on Sunday. If you don't want to be around them still, that's completely understandable."

Reid nodded, but stayed silent. They walked back to the dorms, Reid only thinking about how he would lose the rest of his sanity of he were to lose control. Every little scrap that he had managed to fix over the last three days would be gone once more if his counterpart came out. _If I miss my birthday because of this, then I don't know what's going to happen. I can't beat up myself..._ When Reid and Tyler were back in the dorms, Reid looked at Tyler and said, "I'm going to call Melanie really quick, let her know everything's all right..."

Tyler nodded, but had a smirk on his face. "You really care about this girl, don't you? Excluding what all has happened, and how you really shouldn't be seeing her because of whatever possible spell, you're really into her."

Reid couldn't help the sheepish grin that overcame his face. "Yeah. When I think of her, I just know life can't go wrong. She means everything to me, and it's everything in my power to not see her every night. I told her though that I'd call her, and I figure I might as well let her know I can't come down until after my birthday..."

Tyler nodded, and looked away, Reid leaving the room as he called Melanie. He kept the conversation short, but he could tell she was close to crying when he said he wasn't able to make it to concord until either late Friday night, or Saturday morning. "Sorry babe, an 18th birthday in our family is a huge ordeal. If I was allowed to skip out and celebrate it with you, I would."

"All right... Let me know how it goes."

"I will. Stay safe until I see you next, all right?"

Reid smiled at the giggle that escaped from Melanie. "Of course. I'll talk to you later?"

Reid agreed and soon hung up the phone, simply leaning against the wall for a few minutes to enjoy the feeling that she always left in him. When he was ready he went back into the room to finish up his night.

When Tyler later on asked him if he was interested in partying, Reid stared at his textbook, trying to figure out if it would be a wise decision or not to stay in. "How late are you planning on staying out?" Reid looked over at Tyler and saw him shrug.

"I don't know. However long you would like to stay out I suppose. I figure it'd be a good release for you, and to show that I'm still somewhat trustworthy."

"I still trust you Baby Boy. For some reason I can't be mad at you. You explained your side of it, and I'm surprised that you'll even speak to me as well after what I did to you."

"I knew I shouldn't have told you..." Tyler grumbled. Tyler looked at Reid with a gentle expression, saying, "Look, I already told you; you are my friend. What's done is done, and the side of my face is healing just fine in case you haven't noticed. I just thought you would like to get out and away for a bit."

Reid gave a weak smile. "Yeah, I suppose you're right, as always. Let's change and get going then. I would like to go to bed at a somewhat decent hour tonight."

Tyler drove to the party, Reid sitting in silence as he thought about Melanie. "I think if I start to lose it, remind me of Melanie," he said.

"Do you really think that would help?"

Reid shrugged even though he doubted Tyler saw it. "I think so. Every time I've come to or have been myself the longest has been when I'm around her. It's worth a shot at least."

Tyler agreed, Reid continuing to look out the window until they pulled up to a house on the outskirts of town. Reid looked at the simple gray house and lack of yard. Tyler had said this was a of his friends from a camp he used to go, and had lately gotten back into contact with. Reid didn't remember Tyler ever talking about this guy, so he was a bit nervous to be around a lot of people he wasn't familiar with. _But if they have alcohol and it helps me forget about everything that has happened, then I think I can handle it for a few hours. I have to stay me and cut out all of this pussy shit._

Reid followed Tyler inside and was greeted by a cute brunette, who handed them cups. "Who are you here to see?" She asked, Tyler and Reid giving her their friendliest smiles.

"Michael. I used to go to Saint Brush with him."

The girl laughed and pointed towards the kitchen. "He'll be back in the kitchen. And you must have been a rebel if you went to Saint Brush and managed to befriend him."

Tyler glanced over at Reid, a smirk forming on his face. "Every lesson I learned about rebels is from this kid right here. Thank you though for the cups." She nodded and shut the door as they walked away, Tyler sighing. "If it weren't for the fact that Sasha and I are semi-dating, I really wouldn't mind hooking up with her..."

Reid couldn't help but laugh. "If it weren't for the fact that I have a girlfriend, I'd show you how to properly score with a girl. But we have to stay as G as possible here."

Tyler began laughing, Reid shaking his head at what he just said. "What the hell happened to you? 'G?' You're whipped."

"Shut it. I'm not whipped, but I'm also not going to lose this chance."

Tyler chuckled as they saw the keg, Tyler soon spotting his friend. Reid went towards the beer and mingled, not going out of his way to meet anyone new, which was quite different from his normal party attitude. He knew this was more Tyler's scene and he didn't want to crash it. The more beer though that Reid drank, he began conversing with more and more people, and was beginning to have a decent time. He saw the brunette from the front door plenty of times and knew she was checking him out from time to time. He couldn't help but look at her either, though he kept Melanie on the front of his mind. After the beer began to take effect and he was filling up another cup, she came over and leaned against the wall in front of him, smiling.

"How's your night going?"

"Better than before I suppose. Yours?"

"Quite well. I'm Tracy."

"Reid. You go to school around here?"

"Down in Boston. I've known Michael since junior high so I'm up here often enough."

The questions and comments began flowing after that, and Reid began to see how cool the girl really was. Even though they had a lot of things in common that they could converse about, he would remember about Melanie and then about Tyler. When he realized that he hadn't seen his friend for awhile, he began to turn around as a wave of dizziness rolled through his drunken state. He turned back to Tracy, saying, "Sorry, but I have to find my friend."

She looked at him peculiarly before saying "All right," Reid turning away and quickly looking around the room which was now holding a lot more people than he remembered. He quickly went around the house, his vision slowly getting worse. When he decided it was a lost cause, he went outside, stumbling into the fresh air. He leaned against the porch pole, catching his breath as his vision wavered again, threatening to black out on him. _Melanie... Think of Melanie and everything she means to you._

He remembered Melanie's long, silky brunette hair, wisps of bangs that hid the tops of her clever eyes. Her childish grin, hiding her teeth, with slender shoulders leading to tan arms, folded gracefully over her breasts. He imagined her fine hips and legs that often left him breathless, her body fitting to ever position and posture his could. She could make him do anything she wanted, asking with a grin and hopeful glimmer in her eyes, playing with her hair over her shoulder, eyes cast down, and her puppy-pout often had him turning away, her beauty almost to stunning to comprehend. His heart ached for his love, and he was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the door open behind him. He looked and saw Tyler, a worried expression across his face.

"Is everything all right?"

"I...think so. I almost lost everything for a second, but I thought about Melanie and I think it's settled..."

Tyler simply looked at him. "All right, I'll take your word for it. And, try to avoid Tracy. She's bad news."

Reid gave a weak laugh. "Of course she is. Any girl that's attracted to me is bad news."

Tyler followed him back inside, and Reid quickly made an effort of downing two more beers to get drunk again. Reid followed Tyler's advice and stuck with him and Michael, within another hour deciding it was time to leave. "I'm plenty drunk now, bro. Time to head?" Reid asked, Tyler nodding.

"You drive, or me?"

Michael stared at them, doubt heavy in his face. "Are you sure you guys should drive? That's really risky business, especially this late at night."

Tyler placed his hand on Michael's shoulder and grinned. "Please, trust us. We'll get home just fine. There are a million things about us driving in this condition that you don't need to worry about."

Michael, still doubtful, slowly nodded at Tyler's promising smile. "Be careful," he said, Reid soon following Tyler out, trying not to run into a lot of people or spill any beer.

When they reached outside, Reid lit up one of his last cigarettes to mellow out, looking at Tyler. "You can't drive, can you?"''

Tyler slowly shook his head. "I honestly don't think I can Use right now and be able to get home. Sorry, but you've had more practice than I have."

Reid nodded, slowly smoking and preparing himself to Use. It had been awhile since he had Used, but he didn't count his counterpart. "You don't think anything will go wrong, do you?"

"Just think of Melanie. Dream for this weekend maybe?"

Reid nodded and tossed his cigarette, slowly walking to the driver door. He closed his eyes and filled himself with the familiar ecstasy, allowing himself to bask in it for a moment. Eyes black, he opened the door and slid in, Tyler handing him the keys and Reid starting the hummer, allowing the power to let his drunken stupor take over his body. He was dimly aware of the power taking over his mind and driving the two safely back to the dorms.

When they returned, Reid woke Tyler up and the two together stumbled towards the dorm, Reid allowing his power to go back into hiding. He stumbled and fell, Tyler unable to catch Reid as he nailed his shoulder and head into the stairs. Reid groaned as his stomach twisted with the pain and alcohol. "Reid, are you okay? Come on, let's get up."

Reid coughed, slowly moving his body into a crouching position, Tyler helping pull him up. The two barely made it to the room, and both collapsed heavily onto their beds. Reid, through his pain and drunkenness, felt tears come to his eyes. "If I'm not me tomorrow, Baby Boy, I'm really sorry. Just...try to get me to come to by my birthday please."

"Reid, don't say that. Is your side and head okay?"

"It hurts. It really, really hurts."

Reid breathed in quickly as he brushed his hand over his head. He felt liquid, and let out his breath as he accepted that it was blood. He heard Tyler get out of his bed and walk over in the bathroom, the light soon turning on. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up really quick."

Slowly Reid crawled out of the bed and stumbled over to the bathroom, everything dark and blurry. He slowly lost feeling and the rest of his sight as Tyler cleaned him up, doing his best for the head wound. When he heard Tyler flip off the light, Reid couldn't tell if his eyes were open or not. He slowly lost his ability to stand, Tyler catching him and helping him over to the bed. "Sorry, it hurts..." he breathed out, Tyler setting a hand on his good shoulder.

"Sleep Reid. I'll see you in the morning."

Reid lost consciousness, the black void swallowing deeper than he was used to, but it felt more comfortable, more embracing, than before.

* * *

Heya everyone! Hope it's all going well for you... For those it matters to, I'm really sorry this took so long to come out. I've edited this so many times, but something would screw up every time. Even after I swore that I saved it. So I got tired of reading it and yeah...I believe this will be the final product. Hopefully! But, i may put chapter 8 out soon...just cause i've procrastinated enough all ready...hehe. Love yas!


	8. It was a Firefight!

**Chapter 8**

When Reid woke next, it was to a sharp pain in his shoulder. He opened his eyes and saw Caleb face to face with him, instantly locked his muscles, knowing this was not a good time. Caleb's irises were rimmed with red, though the black was swirling back and forth, calling for release. Reid felt his breathing pitch as he quickly tried to look around, but a sharp pain slowly overtook his face. "Listen up!"

Reid slowly faced the angered elder, trying to catch his breath. "Caleb, please, what's going on?"

Caleb looked into Reid's eyes and closely at his face. "Who appeared at my mom's forty-fifth birthday party that shouldn't have appeared?"

Reid cringed as he tried to remember through his waves of confusion. "Your grandma. Mom's mom. She learned about us that day."

"Do you know where you are?"

Reid quickly glanced around, answering, "The basement?"

Caleb released his grip on Reid's shoulder, an apathetic look across his face before he turned away. Reid stood shaking against the pole, slowly looking around and actually taking in the surroundings. He realized he wasn't in the basement, but in a barn. There were enough lanterns lit around the area to give it a soft glow, and he saw Tyler standing to Reid's right, Pogue in the center defending the doorway, and Caleb standing on the left, his back towards Reid. Through some missing siding of a wall between Caleb ad Pogue, Reid saw that the sun was setting, casting a warm glow across the frosty ground.

"No, no," Reid muttered, his chest feeling constricted with each breath. "I, I'm not ready. Caleb, I'm not ready!" Reid screamed, feeling each beat of his heart pound throughout his body, a soft bass to his tenor breath. He desperately looked at Tyler, who looked helpless. "Tyler, please, I'm not ready. I can't go through with this!"

"It's your eighteenth birthday Reid," Tyler said as a soft wind began to surround the area. "You have to go through with this."

Reid gasped as his power began to build in his chest, calling for release. Reid held a tight hold on it, not granting its wishes. The wind picked up around Reid even more, the rose painted sunset fading to the fallen black and gray, swirling around the area where the four were standing. Reid felt as if his body was going to explode and finally gave in, the power exploding from Reid and collapsing the walls around him as he was lifted into the air, the heaven's preparing him. Reid felt a force smash into his body, causing him to yell as his body was being electrocuted from every direction. Seconds later it all stopped and he only felt numb as his vision went dark.

When he next opened his eyes, he felt a blast rip into his chest, and he became disoriented, even more so when he crashed into something hard, a pained yell escaping his throat. He heard some movement, and slowly opened his eyes to Caleb, Pogue, and Tyler standing over him. He closed his eyes as his back began throbbing painfully, his breath constricted once more. "What just happened?" he finally had the breath to ask, not seeing any of their reactions.

"Fifth grade science fair project," he heard Tyler say, and wished he had enough strength to grin from the memory.

"Mentos in different sodas. Different heights and what not."

He felt someone crouch beside him, a hand gently placed on his shoulder. "What hurts?" Tyler asked.

Reid attempted to sit up, but his arms gave out on him so he decided to stay on the ground. He felt Tyler help him sit up, Reid keeping his eyes closed lest he opened them and saw something he didn't want to acknowledge. "Every inch of my body. I'm done with ascending, right?"

"Yeah, it's over. Caleb just ensured that you've ascended, as well as your counterpart."

Reid opened his eyes and saw Caleb standing a few feet away, looking distracted with his thoughts, while Pogue stood near the door, ignoring what was going on at the front of the room. "Fuck. What's happened since the party?"

Tyler looked up at Caleb, who nodded. "The morning after the party, I could've sworn you were normal. Your counterpart was acting perfect. The first few classes went smoothly, you didn't join us for lunch, but sixth hour I guess you decided that playing normal was boring."

Caleb spoke next, glaring at an area next to Reid. "Before math, you came up to me and asked how much Sarah would cost for a night. When I told you to step away before you got hurt, you looked at me and snapped your fingers, threatening that if I didn't look out, Sarah would be gone just like that. You said if she didn't watch out, she was going to be the kinkiest fuck you've ever had. Before I could hit you, you went into the classroom, smirking all period long whenever you looked over at me."

Reid put his head in his hands, not wanting to hear anymore. Tyler continued though, saying, "Seventh hour was no better, only instead of threatening Sarah you threatened me with the baseball bat again when I told you I wasn't going to let you cheat off of my test. After class you disappeared and didn't come back last night. Today when you showed up, you acted like nothing had happened and proceeded to ignore all of us until we grabbed you after school and took you to the basement, waiting for the right time."

Reid simply sat there, hurting, unable to do anything about the situation. "I'm sorry. I was hoping it'd stop after I ascended, but obviously that didn't work." _Melanie... At least I get to see Melanie soon. I need her like never before._

"Now that you're back to normal for the time being, would you like to stop by your parents house for dinner before you head to Concord?" Tyler asked, Reid nodding, Tyler helping him stand back up.

"Sorry for hitting you with my power, but you tried coming after me first."

Reid didn't meet Caleb's eye, but nodded. "No worries." The four slowly walked out to the hummer and mustang, Reid holding in a lot of the pain. As they reached the cars, Reid looked at Caleb and Pogue, asking, "How are Kate and Sarah?"

The two looked at each other, Pogue saying, "They've been busy hanging out with each other, so fine I suppose. Why?"

"I heard that you guys found them after they went missing, and I haven't seen them around as often. Sorry, just curious." Reid saw Pogue nod and got into the hummer, Tyler soon starting it and driving towards Reid's house.

"Would your parents mind if I joined you for dinner? No offense, but you don't look that great."

"They'd be fine with it. You've joined in the last 17 years I believe, so why break the tradition now?"

Tyler chuckled, and the rest of the time they rode in silence, Reid watching the scenery pass by. The last of the sunset was making the snow look like a layer of blood was across the ground. "Do you think tonight is going to go smoothly?"

"I believe so. The other part came out the last two times I've seen you pass out. Just be careful later on when you're driving to Concord. The roads are supposedly icy."

Reid gave a weak smile, the front gates of the mansion soon coming into view. Tyler parked and the two got out, Reid feeling weak. He looked at the front doors, sighed, and did his best to keep a steady balance as Tyler walked next to him, keeping an eye out to make sure he didn't fall anymore. Reid's parents greeted him at the front door, Reid putting on a fake smile in attempt to match their enthusiastic ones. From there on, the night was the similar to any other year; Tyler was over, Massachusetts' finest meat platter and sides, some presents, and cake. The only difference was Reid's father asking him how he felt after ascending. When Reid responded with how tired he was, his father simply grinned.

"I was exhausted too, but you'll be pumped later on. Just don't abuse it now. I know you've heard the lecture various times, but just be careful."

Reid gave his father a thankful grin and after telling his family a good night thanks, Reid left to go back to the dorms with Tyler, taking a small nap as Tyler drove back. He was excited to see Melanie, and he felt that this weekend would be a little bit more spectacular than the rest. Granted, she knew nothing of his powers, but they were now one with him, and he, in theory, could do more things now on a much broader scale. And Reid was quite curious with what all he could do with the power.

Tyler woke him up when they got back to the dorms, Reid quite happy that his counterpart hadn't come out. Reid looked at the time, and was glad that it was only a little after eight. Reid hurried to the dorms and packed some things, made sure his keys, phone, and wallet were on him, and gave Tyler a quick smile. "Have a good weekend. I'll see you on Sunday."

"Be safe on the way out."

Reid shook his head with a grin, saying, "Don't worry, mother." He heard Tyler chuckle as he shut the door behind him. Reid took out his cell phone and called Melanie, walking quickly to his truck. When she answered he told her he was on his way, a squeal of delight meeting his ears. "Ready for a fun night?"

"Now that I'm 'legal?' Yes, I am ready. Do you have any plans?"

"Nope, but I will here soon. See you in an hour?"

"You got it." Reid soon hung up and was driving towards Concord, feeling different than normal. He figured it was his power now being one with his body, as well as he was finally eighteen. He could feel his power more fully now, simmering on the back edge of his mind. It would be a lot easier to call it now, and he figured he could call it faster now than before. His body didn't feel refreshed or pumped though, like Caleb and Pogue had described. _It was probably from Caleb attacking me. I had just come out of shock basically, and within seconds he was throwing his power at me, which is still twice as strong as any of ours. _Reid managed to calm down to the music, and was eventually arriving at Melanie's, prepared for an excellent night.

XX—X—X—XX

Reid pulled back into Melanie's driveway, her conversation dropping off as she looked around, Reid noticing the extra car parked where Reid normally did. "Do you know whose car that is?" Reid asked, slowing to a stop as he glanced at Melanie. She looked confused, as if running over past conversations.

"That's Chase's car. I don't know why he'd be here though. Normally he's up in Boston with Jason."

Reid felt his blood run cold, his power threatening to consume him. "Chase? What's his last name?"

Melanie just looked at him, her confusion still evident. "Do you know a Chase? His last name is Collins though... I've known him for a few months now. He's one of Jason's friends."

"Stay right here and away from Chase. I know the guy a little better than you and you don't want to get involved with anything around him."

Melanie watched Reid get out of his truck as anger and caution consumed his mind. He stopped by the front of his truck, carefully looking around the area with a bit of his power, Using to feel Chase's own power. Granted, the guy was stronger than Reid would ever be, but he could at least expect a surprise. He moved and looked around the red Nissan 350Z, barely able to see through the tinted windows. He scanned the area again, and saw Melanie still waiting, looking less worried and more impatient. He walked up to the front of the door of the house and found it unlocked, though that didn't surprise him too much. He allowed the power to run up and down his arms, in case he had to cheat his way to winning a fight. _There is no such thing as cheating with Chase though. He does it all the time. _

As Reid was about to open the door to the house, he heard Melanie scream and quickly turned around, seeing Jason pulling Melanie out of his truck. Reid began running back over to her, but the next thing he knew he was flying through the air, landing painfully on his back, unable to get any air. "Reid!" he heard Melanie yell, before she gave a cry of pain.

Reid struggled to get up, but as soon as he was on his hands and knees, someone kicked him in the stomach, causing him to fall over, his hand's covering his stomach as he tried to quell the urge to vomit. He heard someone's fingers snap, and hearing Melanie scream brought tears to Reid's eyes. _Go! Go to her! What am I doing lying on the ground? I need to protect Melanie! They're hurting her! _Reid opened his eyes and saw Chase standing above him, a smirk on his face as he looked down at Reid, arms crossed.

"Why, hello there, Brother. How are you feeling right now?"

"What the fuck do you want Chase? Let Melanie go and I'll do whatever."

Chase chuckled, his smirk darkening. "Oh really now? I highly doubt that... Can you even make it over to her?" Chase kicked Reid in the side, Reid crying out in pain.

Reid tried to catch his breath, and looked over to Melanie and Jason. Jason still had Melanie in his arms, a gun pointed to her head. "Can you make it?" Jason asked, pulling the hammer back. Melanie began sobbing, Jason's grin not looking very confident.

"You won't do it. You're still in love with the chick." Reid began standing up and quickly ran over to Melanie, Jason wincing as he moved to pull the trigger. Reid lunged for Jason's right hand, pulling it down as Jason pulled the trigger. Reid knew Melanie was safe when he felt pain shatter his right side. He crashed onto the ground, Jason having let go of Melanie to continue holding onto the gun. "Run Melanie!" Reid yelled, attempting to wrestle the gun out of Jason's hands, the pain beginning to make him weak and cloud his mind.

"Finish him off and let's get him out of here," he heard Chase say. "Don't worry about Melanie. She won't be a problem much longer."

Reid's hands slipped on the gun, Jason quickly pulling it out of Reid's hands and smashing it against his head. Reid yelled, and soon felt another blow, and another. The pain mixed in with his side and he quickly fell into unconsciousness, the last thing he heard being Chase's laughter

* * *

Heya everyone! Hope you're all doing all right. Sorry...once again...about the delayed update. But...dun dun dun! Starting to get more into the point of the story. And after this one, i'll probly be throwing up a story from Tyler's POV...just to try it out, since that also seems to be more popular than Reid abuse stories...lol. Though, Reid is my favorite to pick on. And i appreciate those of you who email me and politely ask when i'm going to update... Apparently, i've gotten a lot worse at this... But here's to hoping that soon i'll be updating regularly, and then the story will be finished... Yeah. Anywho, thanks for those of you who are reading this and enjoying!


	9. The Escalade of Attack

**Chapter 9**

When Reid woke next, it wasn't to his own doing. He attempted to shake the water off of his face, but the side of his head spiked with pain as soon as he began moving it. He simply sat there, beginning to feel the rest of his body. Head leaning against his chest, he slowly established that he was sitting on a chair, his arms tied behind him to the metal, his ankles tied to the legs of the chair. Hair clumping to the side of his face as the water slid down, he figured he hadn't been out long due to the painful throbbing on the side of his head where Jason had beat him with the butt of the gun.

"How are you feeling, Mr. Garwin?" he heard a male voice ask, soon comprehending that it was Chase. Reid remained silent, soon another round of cold water splashing across his face. "Well?"

"What do you want?" Reid asked, words slurred, not really wanting to think or move.

"Eager to know what's going on, aren't we? Well, since you asked and there's nothing you can do, I suppose I can explain." Reid remained silent and still when he heard Chase's footsteps begin pacing in front of him. "Since I barely managed to escape before, I've been devising different plans on how I can strike revenge on all of you. When I met Jason, he and Melanie were having a rough time. I saw you one night at a party with Melanie, and placed a spell over the two of you so I could continue to keep an eye on you.

"Through the last month the spell has been maturing, and I simply had to wait for the perfect time to capture you. Now, I am able to start with you, and you're going to bring the other brothers to me. Easy enough, right?"

"Not helping you," Reid said, his mind wanting to shut down again.

Chase chuckled. "Oh, we'll see about that. You will get the brothers to come save you one way or another, Reid."

Reid listened to Chase walk away, but soon the footsteps were returning. "Now, I'm going to have some fun, and I'll ask again soon if you're willing to be saved yet."

Reid barely managed to lift his head up, blinking water out of his eyes as he saw Chase holding some rope, a lighter, and a slim piece of wood. Chase walked behind Reid and pulled his head back aggressively, wrapping the rope around his neck and tying it back to the chair. It became harder for Reid to breathe, but he could still get enough oxygen to not pass out. Opening his eyes once more, he saw Chase pocket the lighter, and gently slapped the piece of wood against his palm, Reid noticing how flexible it was.

The first snap of the wood was right across where Reid was shot, causing him to give a short yell of pain. Chase chuckled and whipped across the hole one more time, Reid barely holding in his voice. He refused to show Chase any signs of weakness, although he didn't know how long he'd be able to keep quiet for. Noticing that Reid wasn't going to give in again, Chase began hitting him once more with the board, Reid trying not to count each little snap he felt against his upper body. One particular snap against the base of his throat caused him to grunt in pain, being the desired wish for Chase.

"Is that sound I hear?" Chase asked, his footsteps circling around Reid. "What can I do to get you to yell, to get you to beg for me to stop?"

"My death," Reid whispered, the wood smacking across his face.

"That's not what I wanted to hear, you know?" Another smack across Reid's face, a grunt of pain barely escaping. "Well, if this isn't working, let's try some other things."

Reid heard Chase walk behind him and heard a rustle before a click, Reid realizing that Chase had grabbed the lighter. He felt the heat on his neck, attempting to struggle away from it. "Not a fan of the fire, are we?"

Reid attempted moving his neck, beginning to lose control of the pain and fear. "Don't do this, Chase," Reid said, disbelieving that this was truly happening.

"Or what? You're stuck where you are, and I will get you to call Caleb, who will come and save the day. Now, are you willing to call him yet?"

Chase lit more of the rope around Reid's neck, using his power to guide the smoke into Reid's face. Reid couldn't help but cough, but as much as he was still upset with Caleb, he wasn't about to turn in his own brother. "I won't do it."

"Then I'll simply have more fun until you're ready. Don't worry though. I'll make sure your pretty little blonde head doesn't burn up."

Reid felt the flame grow around his neck, and attempted to break through the rope even though it was too thick. Chase began using on him, different parts of his body flaring up with pain rhythmically. Within minutes, to Reid's discontent, he was letting out short yells whenever the power was used on him, his skin sensitive to the touch. Chase had a steady control on the smoke, flowing it consistently in front of his face still, beginning to make him feel sick. As if Chase could tell, he cut the ropes around Reid and threw him out of the chair, Reid smacking against a wall. When Reid was a little more oriented, he threw up, his body shaking aggressively.

When he felt steadier, he was lifted into the air and pressed against the wall, the power pressed against his throat so he couldn't breathe. "You're making this hard on yourself you know." Reid felt his phone lifted out of his pocket and placed in front of him. "I can go all night long and never tire. All you have to do is make one simple phone call. I'll even do most of the talking if you would like."

Reid could barely keep his eyes open as the phone hung in front of his face, soon calling Caleb. "Let's make this a bit dramatic, shall we?" Chase asked, smiling when he heard Caleb's voice over the phone.

Chase threw his power at Reid, Reid crying out when he felt thousands of needles press into his skin. "Reid?" he could hear, but didn't know if he had the strength to respond.

The bit of power that was pressed against his throat loosened, but Chase took the moment to throw a burst of power at the burned area, Reid blacking out when he felt the force hit his throat, causing him to gag and cough. "Reid? What's going on? Reid?" he heard Caleb shout, Reid forcing his voice to come out.

"It's a trick Caleb, don't come here," Reid said, hoping Caleb heard him.

"Don't ruin the fun now!" Chase yelled, throwing another wave of power at Reid, knocking him in the shoulder and causing Reid to yell. After the shock of the blow began to fade, Reid was gasping in pain, ready to pass out. "Sorry Caleb," Chase said, Reid barely opening his eyes and seeing that Chase was now on the phone with Caleb. "But Reid's not being too cooperative at the moment. He doesn't know how to have fun as I thought he did."

Chase was smiling as Caleb was probably saying something on the other end. "Oh no, Brother dearest, this isn't a trick. Just listen to poor little Reid yourself." Grinning, Chase threw a ball of power at Reid, smacking him in the same part of the shoulder. Before Reid could begin to get over the pain, he was hit in the stomach twice, Reid once again gasping for breath as he was released from the wall and thrown across the room, smacking into what he assumed was the chair he had previously been occupying. He simply laid there, inhaling short breaths as his body was shaking uncontrollably. "What makes you think that I'm going to stop here? You should see him right now, shaking, whining, cringing every time I take a step towards him... Whatever you guys did to him while he was under my spell is quite impressive."

Reid couldn't fully control his body like he was hoping he could. The pain was consuming his mind, though it had leveled off when Chase had stopped hurting him. "You never caught on? The different attitude and personality changes? The excessive need to see his girlfriend? That was all done by my hand."

_I have to get my phone back... I can't risk endangering Caleb or anyone else. This is entirely my own fuck up. But I can't move my body! _Reid opened his eyes, vision blurry, and slowly began attempting to stand up. He didn't think he'd be able to get his shoulders more than a foot above the ground, but he gained renewed adrenaline when he heard Chase say what he was fearing. "I'm glad I have your attention now. If you don't arrive here within the next thirty minutes, your little brother is a goner."

_No!_ Reid didn't know how he managed, but he pushed himself off of the ground and ran the short distance to Chase, tackling him to the ground. Reid's hand went towards his phone, yelling, "Don't do it Caleb! It's a trap!"

He was wrestling for the phone when he felt a punch hit him up from underneath the jaw. "Stay the fuck out of this, Reid." Chase began a relentless assault on Reid, using the power to hit Reid anywhere that was facing Chase. He soon lost track of if he was yelling or not, if he could see or not, and entirely forgot about everything except the pain. A final blow to his head tied everything up, Reid quickly passing into unconsciousness.

XX—X—X—XX

Freezing water doused Reid's face, causing him to wake up with a start, though his mind quickly stopped when the pain crashed into him again. He simply laid there, his mind only focusing on the pain until another wave of freezing water landed on his face again. "Come on, you've been sleeping for twenty minutes. I have to get you prepared for your brothers."

"I have no brothers..." Reid muttered, beginning to shake from a mixture of the cold water and pain.

"Is that right? Well, we're having some visitors and you are nowhere near suitable. Can you move?"

Reid simply laid there, barely muttering, "No." He wasn't expecting the kick to his hip that was shot at, which caused him to cry out in pain and grab where he was kicked, pain flaring up along his muscles, up into his ribs and across his abs as he moved. He felt the blood that was soaking his shirt and paused, unable to do anything about it.

"That's not the answer I wanted to hear. You better get up or else you're going to get hurt again."

Reid didn't want any more pain. He managed to roll over onto his front and bring his arms under him, hands flat on the ground, but as he tried to move his legs, they simply laid there, muscles burning, unwilling to cooperate. After a few tries of at least pushing himself up, he couldn't move due to his body's excessive shaking, which soon had him receiving a strong kick into his side again. "You're worthless Reid. Just so you know."

He knew he was worthless though. It was the reason why his brothers were continuously mad at him, and how he had even ended up in this situation. And now he had a limited amount of time until the guys came to save his pathetic ass, and would walk into whatever trap that Chase had laid out for them. Reid heard Chase walk over to him and grabbed both his wrists, soon tying his arms behind his back with whatever rope was around. "Caleb I believe is the only one coming, but I at least want you to be a sight for sore eyes when whoever walks in. At least you'll be out of commission for awhile."

Reid simply laid there, unable to fight back. His mind was in too much of a fog to call up his power. Even then, if he were to call it up, the sudden spike in adrenaline would probably make him pass out as soon as he released it. _If I need to grab it, I will. It needs to be worthwhile though, otherwise my body may give out on me after a short bit. _Reid was brought out of his thoughts when he heard a distinctive click, willing himself to move away from the flame. He couldn't move more than a few inches though, Chase chuckling above him.

"Yes, this is going to be quite fun. What will happen, hmmm?"

"Stop," Reid said, barely able to move in Chase's grip.

"Why should I stop now when I've come this far? I'll stop when I see Caleb die."

Reid could feel the heat from the fire embedding itself through the rope, creeping its way closer to his skin. Chase let go of him and flicked his power across Reid's back, Reid giving a brief yell of pain. It happened a few more times, Reid beginning to panic about the rope as his skin grew warmer. "Are you going to call for help yet, Reid? Are you going to cry? Or are you simply going to bear it like the man you think you are?"

Reid desperately wanted to call for help, but he wasn't about to show any more signs of weakness. _Just end it all now, please, just end it all now..._ Reid felt another slam across his back, just as soon as he heard a door slam open. He heard what he thought was Chase giving a grunt of pain, but Reid couldn't make sense of it. Was Caleb here? Did he bring Tyler and Pogue? Reid struggled to open his eyes, but his body was refusing to listen to any commands.

"You're here! And in under thirty minutes. I'm impressed Caleb, though I see you brought some help."

"You're not going to get away Chase, and you are going to pay for what you've done to Reid."

As much as Reid didn't want to acknowledge it, he was so relieved that they were there that tears almost escaped from his eyes. He didn't feel relieved for very long when the simmering flame around his wrists suddenly spiked, Reid yelling as he felt the flame become larger and catch his shirt on fire. He heard someone running towards him, but Reid was lifted and thrown across the room, the impact with the wall driving the wind from his lungs as his arms and wrists were crushed painfully with his body weight and angle. When he dropped to the floor he simply laid there, trying to regain his breath, though his panic began rising once more as he felt the flame. He flipped onto his back to try to press it out, and vaguely heard someone running over.

"Don't worry Reid, we'll get the fire out. Just work with me." Reid felt a little bit of relief as he realized it was Tyler. Tyler moved him onto his front again, Reid cringing as the pain overwhelmed him again. "You're fine...you're fine..." Tyler muttered, trying to be careful.

"Just...get it to stop..." Reid gasped, beginning to pass out once more.

"Come on Reid, stay with me. Don't pass out just yet."

Reid was breathing quickly, his mind simply consumed by the pain, drifting from piece to piece of his body. Tyler's words barely had any effect on him, but they were strong enough for him to remember that he was going to be all right. He simply laid there, barely listening to what was around him as Tyler quickly put out the rest of the fire and took the ropes off of him.

"Pogue!" Tyler yelled as the ropes came off, Reid wanting to open his eyes and see what happened. He next heard Tyler cry out in pain and collapse next to Reid.

Reid felt his adrenaline spike once more and was able to open his eyes, seeing Tyler leaning against the wall, eyes closed, breath shallow. He looked around the room, vision still blurry he hoped from exhaustion, and saw Caleb and Chase watching each other, with Pogue passed out as well behind Chase, blood coming from his head. _What...happened? How did he make Tyler and Pogue pass out so easily? _

"You weren't expecting that, were you Brother?" Chase asked, smirk renewing.

"What did you do to them?" Caleb had his power in his hands, ready to release at any split second.

"Only a sample of what fate will be." Reid saw Chase look over at him and his grin widened. "How are you feeling, Reid?"

Caleb took the opportunity and blasted his power at him, Chase barely defending in time. Caleb began sending wave after wave of power at Chase, Reid staring at Caleb. He had a look of exhilaration, determination, and vengeance across his features. Chase soon was on the ground, not moving. Reid watched Caleb walk over to Chase, bend down, and take his pulse. When he seemed satisfied, he walked over to Pogue, trying to wake him up. "Come on Pogue, wake up. Pogue?"

Reid closed his eyes again, breathing out. He never wanted to move or be awake ever. He heard Pogue make a sound, and relaxed a little bit more. If Pogue could be woken up, then they were going to be all right.

"What's going on?" he soon heard Pogue ask.

"Chase is down right now, but we need to get rid of him somehow. Go check on Tyler."

Reid heard footsteps coming their direction, and still managed to cringe away when he heard them approaching, despite his body's protests. "Reid, can you hear me? It's Caleb."

"I know who you are," Reid mumbled, his mind beginning to fade again.

"We're going to get you out of here. It's going to hurt to move, but it's the only way. We're probably going to have to take you to a hospital too, to figure out the extent of your injuries. So, let's get you up and out of here, all right?"

He could hear the shuffle of Caleb's clothes as he bent down, and Tyler's pained groan. "What happened?" Tyler asked, Reid still unable to make his body move.

"Chase knocked you out," Pogue said. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Come on Reid, let's start getting you up," Caleb said softly, placing his arms gently around Reid to pull him up. "Pogue, I'm going to need your help. Let's get him out to the mustang. Tyler, keep an eye on Chase. He should be out for a little while longer at least."

Together, Caleb and Pogue carefully picked Reid up off of his front, the sudden movement causing Reid to go slack in their arms and his mind spin. He felt like he was going to puke, but he figured he could at least make it outside first. He did his best to move with the guys, but his legs were shaking too badly to hold him up for too long.

"I'm not through with him yet," they suddenly heard, Reid managing to twist his head around and watch Chase stand back up while Tyler was running towards Chase, a ball of power forming in his hands. Chase stared straight at Reid, quickly forming a bolt of power and shooting it at them. Reid only had eyes on the shot as he grabbed his own powers, the intensity of it giving him enough strength to push Caleb and Pogue out of the way. Light filled his vision as he felt the shock hit him, an avalanche of pain wiping everything out in his body, his vision and mind soon being covered permanently with darkness.

* * *

Well hello there! Wow...so it's been awhile since there's been an update. My bad. I've uploaded this file many times, but apparently i'm way to lazy to work on this. As well as there's one more chapter left, but i really, really don't like the way i ended it so i'm gonna try to find something better. But...to those of you who have reviewed, many, many thanks. I appreciate it, and i hope you enjoyed this chapter. Pretty brutal, tried making it more realistic... The human body is pretty amazing overall. Well...enjoy. Try to update soon to finish this one off.


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